Australian IT spending to grow 3.7% this year

Australian IT spending is on track to reach $83.1 billion this year, up 3.7% from 2016 and above the expected global average of 2.4%, according to Gartner.

The research firm predicts that software will be the fastest-growing market segment this year, increasing 12.23% to $11.46 billion. But IT services will remain the largest segment overall, increasing 2.5% to $30 billion.

Spending on devices will meanwhile grow 4.06% to $12.17 billion, Gartner said. By contrast, data centre systems spending will grow at a relatively anaemic 0.82% to $2.69 billion, while communications services will grow just 1.82% to $26.8 billion.

For 2018, growth is expected across all categories barring data centre systems, with the overall market predicted to increase 2.7% to $85.39 billion. But in a reversal of this year, total spending growth in Australia in 2018 is projected to be below the global average of 3.5%.

The New Zealand market is also projected to increase 2.7% this year to NZ$11.8 billion ($11.1 billion) and a further 2.3% in 2018 to NZ$12.07 billion.

Communications services is the largest component of the New Zealand market, worth NZ$3.38 billion, followed by IT services at NZ$3.84 billion.

Global IT spending is projected to total US$3.47 trillion ($4.48 trillion) this year and US$3.59 trillion in 2018.

Enterprise software will be the fastest-growing segment of the market, increasing 7.6% to US$351 billion, Gartner said. Communications services is by far the largest segment of the market but is tracking to grow just 0.3% to US$1.38 billion.

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