Worldwide IT spending will increase at revised 3.3% CAGR from 2015-2020, rising from $2.4 trillion this year to more than $2.7 trillion, according to a revised forecast from IDC released Aug. 29.
The largest corporations in global industry sectors including manufacturing and telecommunications will fuel the rise as they continue to invest in ¨3rd Platform solutions¨ the encompass cloud, mobility and big data.
Adding to the will be healthy growth in demand from healthcare organizations despite perceptions growth in IT spending in the sector may have peaked, IDC hightlights in a press release.
Spending on business analytics and big data will increase more than 50% from 2015-2019, IDC forecast in May with the release of its latest ¨Worldwide Semiannual Big Data and Analytics Spending Guide.¨ IDC’s forecast corporate and enterprise business analytics and Big Data spending will rise from $122 billion to more than $187 billion over the period.
Banking, manufacturing (discrete and process) and telecoms will account for 33% of worldwide IT spending, IDC points out. The market research company expects to see healthy growth in the first two but sluggish growth in telecoms sector IT spending over the five-year period. Conditions in the telecoms sector are expected to improve over the course of the decade and sectoral IT spending grow faster in later as compared to the last several years.
Though not as large as these four industry sectors, healthcare IT spending will growth the fastest over the forecast period, posting a five-year CAGR of 5.7%, IDC predicts.
In February, the market research provider forecast healthcare providers would spend more on IT as they shift from carrying out organization-wide electronic health record (EHR) initiatives to supplementing EHR systems with analytics and care management functionality.
IT spending by banking, media and professional services businesses also will show solid CAGR of 4.9% with combined IT spending exceeding $475 billion in 2020.
Similar to that expected in the telecoms sector, IT spending growth for public sector organizations will improve gradually over the course of the forecast period but continue to lag that for much of the private sector. IT spending by oil and as well as natural resource companies more generally, is expected to recover as the price of oil rebounds, IDC expects.
Commenting on the update, Jessica Goepfert, IDC program director, Customer Insights and Analysis, said: “In the U.S., the greatest near-term growth is expected among healthcare providers, professional services firms, banks and securities and investment services organizations,” said Jessica Goepfert, program director, Customer Insights and Analysis at IDC. “These service-based organizations are turning to 3rd Platform technologies like mobility and big data to enable more productive and meaningful ways to engage with clients. In addition to these customer-centric priorities, businesses operating in regulated environments are also turning to technology to assist with compliance.”
Firmographic IT Spending
Breaking out the results according to organization size, very large businesses (more than 1,000 employees) will account for more than 45% of worldwide IT spending. The more than 70 million small businesses with 1-9 employees will account for another 25%.
IT spending will increase fastest among medium (100-499) and large businesses (500-999 employees), posting a CAGR of 4.4% for the five-year period, according to IDC.
“The small business market has been challenged by the economic slowdown in some regions but there is now some pent-up demand for IT assets in this segment, which will materialize as the economy begins to improve,” Minton added. “Meanwhile, the strongest growth is still among mid-sized companies, which are more nimble than very large enterprises and less exposed to economic volatility than the smallest businesses.”
