Enterprise Market Will Spend Trillions on IT in 2012

Computing has become an intrinsic part of society, and there aren't many better way to figure out just how deeply IT is affecting the world than by looking at just how much money will be spent on it in the coming years.

Next year, the world will invest a whole lot of money in the sustainment, enhancement and advancement of enterprise IT.

In fact, even more money will be fueled into this sector than this year, according to Gartner.

“For the IT leader to thrive in this environment, IT leaders must lead from the front and re-imagine IT,” said Peter Sondergaard, senior vice president at Gartner and global head of Research.

“IT leaders must embrace the post-modern business, a business driven by customer relationships, fueled by the explosion in information, collaboration, and mobility.”

Whereas in 2011, worldwide enterprise IT spending is projected at $2.6 trillion, 2012 will take things even further, to $2.7 trillion.

This would correspond to an increase of 3.9%, give or take, and shows the IT sector's tendency to keep up its investments in spite of global economic woes.

“The days when IT was the passive observer of the world are over. Global politics and the global economy are being shaped by IT,” Mr. Sondergaard said.

“IT is a primary driver of business growth. For example, this year 350 companies will each invest more than $1 billion in IT. They are doing this because IT impacts their business performance.”

The cloud, mobility, social and information storage fields are all going to need resources if they are to keep up with the growing needs of consumers and the rising number of connected devices. This will go one for years.

“That’s incredible change, not only for individuals. It requires IT to re-imagine the way it provides applications,” Mr. Sondergaard said.

“By 2014, private app stores will be deployed by 60 percent of IT organizations. The applications themselves will be redesigned – they will become context-enabled, understanding the user’s intent automatically. Mobile computing is not just the desktop on a handheld device. The future of mobile computing is context-aware computing.”