Gartner increases estimate for worldwide IT spend

Spend on public cloud services will reach £55bn in 2011

Worldwide IT spending is set to grow 7.1 per cent in 2011, according to the latest quarterly spending outlook from Gartner.

This figure has been revised upwards from a previous estimate of 5.6 per cent, and total IT spend is now set to reach £2.3tn this year.

"It is a bit surprising that we have not seen a more significant impact on our global IT spending forecast as a result of the Japan earthquake and tsunami, but despite widespread concerns about disruptions to the supply of critical components in the initial aftermath of the natural disaster, there has not been a dramatic impact on overall IT spending," said Richard Gordon, research vice president at Gartner.

Gartner also forecast that spending on public cloud services would grow four times faster than spending on IT overall, and will reach about £55bn in 2011, up from £46bn in 2010.

"What's clear from the report is that organisations are looking to technology to become more agile. Investing in areas such as mobility and cloud services, while simultaneously investing in and transforming their underlying IT operations, will be key to improving customer experience and increasing employee productivity to gain competitive advantage," said Nathan Marke, CTO for IT lifecycle service provider 2E2.

"So it's no surprise to see that cloud spend, for example, will grow four times faster than spending on overall IT. In a difficult economic climate, businesses need to be efficient and agile to survive - IT will play a big part in this."