Document Management News

World IT spending will return to growth next year, with software spending and cloud computing helping to drive the recovery, says analyst Gartner (www.gartner.com).

Gartner says the IT industry is exiting its worst year ever, as worldwide IT spending is on pace to decline 5.2%. It said worldwide corporate IT spending will struggle even more with IT spending dropping 6.9%.

But it said the IT industry will return to growth with 2010 IT spending forecast to total $3.3 trillion, a 3.3% increase from 2009.

Gartner cautioned IT leaders not to be overly optimistic though.“While the IT industry will return to growth in 2010, the market will not recover to 2008 revenue levels before 2012,” said Gartner analyst Peter Sondergaard.

The computing hardware market has struggled more than other segments this year, with worldwide hardware spending forecast to decline 16.5%. In 2010, spending on hardware spending will be flat, said Gartner.

Worldwide software spending is forecast to decline 2.1% in 2009, but the segment is projected to grow 4.8% in 2010. Worldwide IT services spending is expected to grow 4.5% in 2010.

The analyst said users would next year "Create the cornerstone for the cloud infrastructure. They will enable the infrastructure to move from owned to shared."