Global IT spending is to total $3.7 trillion in 2019, Gartner reports, a 0.4% increase over 2018 and the lowest forecast growth for the year from the analyst. However spending should rebound in 2020 with 3.7% growth brought about by enterprise software spending.

The current complex geopolitical environment has pushed regulatory compliance to the top of the organisation priority list. Overall security spending is up by 10.5% in 2019, and cloud security projects are expected to grow 41.2% over the next 5 years. Gartner says the aim of such projects is not just to keep the "bad guys" out, but also compliance with tariffs and trade policy, intellectual property rights and even multiple (and sometimes overlapping) privacy laws.

Plenty of rumours surround the Intel Xe graphics card, the first Chipzilla take on discrete graphics since 2010's ill-fated Larrabee, and now DigiTimes claims the architecture will get an H2 2020 release.

Such a release timeline means the discrete graphics cards is set for a Computex 2020 launch event, at least according to Taiwanese industry sources. DigiTimes adds the Xe cards will be built using a 10nm process and, interestingly enough, not designed solely for the gaming. Instead, DigiTimes claims "Intel is set to combine the new GPUs with its CPUs to create a competitive platform in a bid to pursuit business opportunities from data centre, AI and machine learning applications."

The EMEA PC market is up by 3% Y-o-Y in Q3 2019, Gartner reports, as shipments total 19.4 million units thanks to "strong" demand from businesses across W. Europe, except the UK due to (perhaps obvious) Brexit-related reasons.

Desktops remain a popular form factor with many European businesses, while mobile PC shipments see a return to growth after 2 quarters of decline. Results are less rosy on a global perspective, since Q3 2019 shipments total 68m units, a 1.1% Y-o-Y increase compared to the 67m units of Q3 2018.

“The Windows 10 refresh cycle continued to be the primary driver for growth across all regions, although the magnitude of the impact varied according to local market conditions and the stage of the refresh cycle,” the analyst says. “For example, in Japan, PC shipments grew 55% Y-o-Y in Q3 2019, driven by the Windows 10 refresh cycle and a pending sales tax change. This strong growth helped propel the total worldwide PC market to growth.”

According to the Gartner 2019 Hype Cycle for Blockchain Technologies the blockchain is sliding into the so called "Through of Disillusionment," and as such the technology will only advance to allow for uniquely supported use cases by 2021.

The Through of Disillusionment is the point where interest in a technology wanes as experiments and implementations fail to deliver.

“Blockchain technologies have not yet lived up to the hype and most enterprise blockchain projects are stuck in experimentation mode,” the analyst says. “Blockchain is not yet enabling a digital business revolution across business ecosystems and may not until at least 2028, when Gartner expects blockchain to become fully scalable technically and operationally.”