Gartner lamented that there has never been such a volatile market in 25 years

According to Gartner's forecast, global IT spending will reach $3.8 trillion in 2021, up 4% from 2020, but still short of pre-Covid-19 pandemic levels. IT spending in 2020 is expected to reach $3.6 trillion, down 5.4% from 2019.

The forecast shows that all IT spending areas, including data center systems, IT services, communications services, enterprise software and equipment spending, have declined in 2020. Gartner noted that some affected industries, such as entertainment and air transportation, cut IT spending by more than 30% in 2020.

Gartner believes that enterprise software spending should see the strongest rebound in 2021, with an expected growth of 7.2%. The growth is mainly due to the digitalization of enterprises, the need to increase support for remote work and the need to provide virtual services such as remote learning or telemedicine.

Gartner admits that in the 25 years they have been forecasting IT spending, there has never been such a volatile market. Although all industries are under pressure as the pandemic continues to spread, digital businesses that entered the crisis have performed better and will continue to thrive in 2021.

Gartner predicts that global data center infrastructure spending is expected to reach $200 billion in 2021. As hyperscale applications accelerate the construction of global data centers, companies will resume data center expansion plans and allow employees to return to work. Spending on data center systems will achieve the second highest growth level in 2021, with an increase of 5.2%.