IT industry, get ready to rejoice. According to two new reports, 2010 is going to be a good year. A report from Forrester Research and a soon-to-be-released survey from Information Technology Intelligence Corp. (ITIC) point to a recovery for IT.
The Forrester study said U.S. spending on IT will grow 6.6 percent this year to about $570 billion, following an 8.2 percent decline in 2009. On a global level, the report predicts a rise of 8.1 percent to more than $1.6 trillion.
“The technology downturn of 2008 and 2009 is unofficially over,” said Forrester Vice President Andrew Bartels, adding that “the tech recovery will be much stronger” than the overall economic rebound.
The Era of ‘Smart Computing’
Forrester described the IT industry as now entering a six- or seven-year cycle of “growth and innovation” that it calls Smart Computing. The research firm sees the keys of Smart Computing as the marriage of new “technologies of awareness” with advanced business analytics, resulting in a more widespread use of service-oriented architecture, server and storage visualization, cloud computing, and unified communications.
The key areas of hardware and software will drive the growth, the Forrester report said. It projected global purchases of computer equipment to be up 8.2 percent, communications 7.6 percent, software spending 9.7 percent, IT outsourcing 7.1 percent, and IT consulting and systems integration services 6.8 percent.
The strongest growth in dollars is expected to be in Western Europe, rising 11.2 percent. That rise is due, in part, by the decline of the dollar versus the euro. By a similar measure, IT will also grow in Canada, Asia Pacific, and Latin America, by 9.9, 7.8, and 7.7 percent, respectively. Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa are projected to grow only 2.4 percent.
However, when judged by its own currency, the U.S. will see the largest growth.
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