Gartner Sees '22 Worldwide IT Spend Growth at 5.1%

January 24, 2022

Worldwide IT spending is projected to total $4.5 trillion in 2022, an increase of 5.1% from 2021, according to the latest forecast by Gartner.

Despite the potential impacts of the Omicron variant, economic recovery with high expectations for digital market prosperity will continue to boost technology investments.

“2022 is the year that the future returns for the CIO,” said John-David Lovelock, distinguished research vice president at Gartner. “They are now in a position to move beyond the critical, short term projects over the past two years and focus on the long term. Simultaneously, staff skills gaps, wage inflation and the war for talent will push CIOs to rely more on consultancies and managed service firms to pursue their digital strategies.”

Gartner forecasts that the IT services segment – which includes consulting and managed services – is expected to have the second highest spending growth in 2022, reaching $1.3 trillion, up 7.9% from 2021 (see Table 1). Business and technology consulting spending, specifically, is expected to grow 10% in 2022.

Table 1. Worldwide IT Spending Forecast (Millions of U.S. Dollars)

	2021 Spending	2021 Growth (%)	2022 Spending	2022 Growth (%)	2023 Spending	2023 Growth (%)
Data Center Systems	216,337	11.4	226,475	4.7	237,021	4.7
Enterprise Software	604,946	14.4	671,732	11.0	751,937	11.9
Devices	787,417	13.0	813,699	3.3	804,253	-1.2
IT Services	1,186,103	10.7	1,279,737	7.9	1,391,742	8.8
Communications Services	1,444,324	3.4	1,462,712	1.3	1,494,167	2.2
Overall IT	4,239,127	9.0	4,454,354	5.1	4,679,119	5.0

Source: Gartner (January 2022)

Through 2025, organizations will increase their reliance on external consultants, as the greater urgency and accelerated pace of change widen the gap between organizations’ digital business ambitions and their internal resources and capabilities, according to Gartner.

“This will be particularly poignant with cloud as it serves as a key element in achieving digital ambitions and supporting hybrid work,” said Lovelock. “Gartner expects the vast majority of large organizations to use external consultants to develop their cloud strategy over the next few years.”