Worldwide IT spending to jump 3 percent in 2022: Gartner

Worldwide IT spending in 2022 is predicted to only grow 3 percent this year due to a slow down in consumer spending according to a new report from Gartner.

Global IT spending is projected to total US$4.5 trillion in 2022, the report states.

While IT spending is expected to grow in 2022, it will be at a much slower pace than 2021 due to spending cutbacks on PCs, tablets and printers by consumers, causing spending on devices to shrink 5 percent.

John-David Lovelock, distinguished research vice president at Gartner said inflation is top of mind for everyone.

He said, “Central banks around the world are focusing on fighting inflation, with overall inflation rates expected to be reduced through the end of 2023. However, the current levels of volatility being seen in both inflation and currency exchange rates is not expected to deter CIOs’ investment plans for 2022.

“Organisations that do not invest in the short term will likely fall behind in the medium term and risk not being around in the long term.”

Price increases and delivery uncertainty, exacerbated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, have accelerated the transition in purchasing preference among CIOs, and enterprises in general, from ownership to service — pushing cloud spending to 18.4 percent growth in 2021 and expected growth of 22.1 percent in 2022.

Gartner said that not only is cloud service demand reshaping the IT services industry, but it is also driving spending on servers to 16.6 percent growth in 2022, as hyperscalers build out their data centres.

Spending on data centre systems is forecast to experience the strongest growth of all segments in 2022 at 11.1 percent. Cloud consulting and implementation and cloud managed services are expected to grow 17.2 percent in 2022, from $217 billion in 2021 to $255 billion in 2022, helping to drive the overall IT services segment to 6.2 percent growth in 2022.