Worldwide IT spending will hit US$3.8 trillion this year, up from $3.7 trillion in 2013, according to Gartner.
The analyst firm is predicting that enterprise software will see the highest growth, with spending to increase 6.8 per cent this year to US$320 billion, up from US$300 billion last year. This is followed by IT services, with spending growing at 4.5 per cent, devices at 4.3 per cent, data centre systems at 2.6 per cent, and telecomm services at 1.2 per cent.
Australian IT spending is forecast to grow to $76.9 billion this year, an increase of 2.54 per cent from 2013.
Last year, Gartner said the Internet of Things will be a big driver of revenue in the digital economy. In 2020, Gartner predicts there will be up to 30 billion devices connected with unique IP addresses to the Internet, up from 2.5 billion in 2009.
“In the technology and telecom sectors, revenue associated with the Internet of Things will exceed US$309 billion per year by 2020,” said Peter Sondergaard, senior vice president and global head of research at Gartner.
Forrester is also forecasting growth in global IT spending, with an increase of 5-6 per cent from 2013.
The analyst firm predicts double-digits growth rates in software-as-a-service, mobile devices and tablets, analytics and big data, and smart process apps.
“Business and government purchases of software will post the fastest 2014 growth (7.8 per cent in US dollars, 7.1 per cent in local currency terms) of any tech category, followed by IT consulting and systems integration services (7.3 per cent in US dollars, 6.6 per cent in local currencies),” said Forrester analyst Andrew Bartels.
“Cloud computing in the form of software-as-a-service, mobile computing in the form of custom mobile app development, and smart computing in the form of business intelligence, analytics, and what Forrester has called smart process apps for human-based collaboration are growing at double-digit rates.”