Could worldwide IT expenditure hit £2 trillion by 2019?

According to the global market intelligence firm, IDC, the worldwide spend of IT could near £2 trillion by 2019.

This is due to the increase of software investment by companies and organisations as well as spending on other tools to collect data and to improve business operations. The worldwide spending on software is expected to rise by 6.7% over the next three years with companies in the healthcare and financial sectors being the biggest spenders in IT.

“In many industries, business leaders will turn to IT solutions, including

and

optimisation, to help them navigate the stormy economic waters." said IDC, “For IT vendors, the need is greater than ever for a detailed approach to targeting pockets of growth and opportunity amidst this volatile economy."

Hardware investment will also take up a large percentage of IT spending as companies continue to buy computers, smartphones, servers and other crucial electrical equipment to "facilitate enterprise and IT operations, such as enterprise resource management and operations and manufacturing applications", IDC commented.

Larger corporations and businesses of more than 1,000 employees are expected to take up 40% of the worldwide spend of IT. However, medium sized businesses between 500 and 999 employees will have the largest spend on IT, according to the IDC report. 

The firm predicts that North America will have the biggest expenditure on IT and could reach £1 trillion by 2017, followed then by Europe and Africa.