Gartner Says Global IT Spending to Reach $3.9 Trillion in 2020

Worldwide IT spending is projected to total $3.9 trillion in 2020, an increase of 3.4% from 2019, according to the latest forecast by Gartner.

“Although political uncertainties pushed the global economy closer to recession, it did not occur in 2019 and is still not the most likely scenario for 2020 and beyond,” said John-David Lovelock, research vice president at Gartner. “With the waning of global uncertainties, businesses are redoubling investments in IT as they anticipate revenue growth, but their spending patterns are continually shifting.”

Software will be the fastest-growing major market this year, reaching double-digit growth at 10.5%.

“Almost all of the market segments with enterprise software are being driven by the adoption of software as a service (SaaS),” said Lovelock. “We even expect spending on forms of software that are not cloud to continue to grow, albeit at a slower rate. SaaS is gaining more of the new spending, although licensed-based software will still be purchased and its use expanded through 2023.”

Growth in enterprise IT spending for cloud-based offerings will be faster than growth in traditional (noncloud) IT offerings through 2022, according to Gartner. Organizations with a high percentage of IT spending dedicated to cloud adoption is indicative of where the next-generation, disruptive business models will emerge.

Despite last quarter showing the sharpest decline within the device market among all segments, Gartner expects the segment will return to overall growth in 2020 due to the adoption of new, less-expensive phone options from emerging countries.

More detailed analysis on the outlook for the IT industry is available in the complementary webinar “IT Spending Forecast, 4Q19 Update: Emerging Technologies in 2020.”

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