Worldwide IT spending could increase by nearly five per cent from last year’s levels, according to research from Gartner.

Emerging regions of world prosperity and the replacement of obsolete systems are two reasons why the analyst said it forecasts a 4.5 per cent growth in IT investment despite the economic downturn.

“Organisations are switching from company-owned hardware and software assets to per-use service-based models,” said Gartner analyst Jim Tully.

“The projected shift to cloud computing, for example, will result in dramatic growth in IT projects in some areas and in significant reductions in other areas,” he said.

As might be expected, software and IT services are likely to account for the largest amount of IT spend. The main area of hardware growth is in the PC market, which represents 60 per cent of the total hardware spending.

“In addition to regional shifts, a strong shift to mobile PCs is occurring,” said Tully.

“The higher prices of these products result in increasing revenue per unit and a boost to the overall market."

Gartner surveyed chief information officers and suppliers to give an idea of businesses’ spending intentions and this information was merged with other data, such as the average length of technology renewal cycles, to give an accurate IT investment forecast, said Tully.