IT spending won’t return to normal until 2022, claims according to analyst outfit Garter group.
The analyst firm believes that, despite the availability of Covid vaccines, a return to pre-pandemic spending levels will be thwarted this year by continued government measures to contain the virus. Other non-Covid factors such as Brexit and US-China trade tension will also prevent a spending recovery in some regions, Gartner said.
“Overall, returning global recovery back to 2019 spending rates will not occur until 2022, although many countries may recover earlier. People-gathering industries, such as restaurants, travel, and entertainment, will hover at the bottom long-term”, the analysts tutted.
The prediction comes as Gartner forecasts worldwide IT spending to grow by just 6.2 percent this year to $3.9 trillion.
It comes after spending fell by 3.2 percent in 2020 as COVID-19 forced CIOs to prioritise their spending on “mission-critical” technology and services.
Enterprise software is expected to be the highest growing segment this year, Gartner said, with spending set to grow by 8.8 percent to $505.72 billion. Devices will be the second-best performing segment with eight percent growth to $705.42 billion.
Gartner claims that the high growth in software will be due to businesses pushing to expand and improve their remote working environments, while growth in devices spending will be driven by a continued need for home learning and working.
