Global IT Spending Grows Massively in 2010, Reaches $1.5 Trillion

It appears that 2010 was a year when the IT industry definitely recovered, as sales of all sots of hardware grew by a great deal, something that reflected onto the overall IT spending.

Last year, demand for various hardware upgrades picked up, after having been slowed down by the global recession of 2009.

Spending on computer systems, peripherals, network equipment and mobile devices reached $661 million, which is about 16% more than in 2009.

This was the fastest rate of growth for hardware investment since 1996, being even more robust that the recovery after previous economic recessions, leading to a sum of $1.5 trillion.

Storage, server and PC spending also jumped, by 14%, 9% and 11%, respectively, and 2011 is poised to show further acceleration in all IT areas.

Cloud computing will be a major factor, as it is rapidly being adopted, and overall IT market should grow by 7%, to $1.65 trillion.

"Like the global economy, the global IT industry performed better than expected in 2010," said Stephen Minton, vice president of IDC's IT Markets and Strategies Group.

"With business profits and stock markets back into a cycle of growth, many organizations took the opportunity to make up for lost time by upgrading mission critical systems and infrastructure over the course of the year,” he added.

“While downside macroeconomic risks are still present, we entered 2011 on the back of a resounding rebound for the technology industry," Minton went on to saying.

"Last year was a big year for the technology industry," said Minton.

"Some of the growth was just a bounce back from the declines of 2009, when the market declined by 4%, but there was also a very real surge of demand as businesses around the world continue to deal with the issue of managing, storing, securing, and analyzing the increasing flood of digital information that is resulting from the proliferation of mobile devices and embedded computing platforms. As long as the economy remains stable, we look forward to another strong year of investment in 2011."