According to Gartner's latest forecast, global IT spending is expected to reach $4.4 trillion in 2022, a 4% increase from 2021. Among them, China's IT spending is expected to exceed US$550 million in 2022, an increase of 7.76% compared to 2021.

The impact of inflation on IT hardware (such as mobile devices and PCs) over the past two years has finally dissipated and is starting to spread to software and services. Due to the current scarcity of IT talent, technology service providers have to offer more competitive salaries and thus raise prices, a move that will drive spending in these areas in 2022 and 2023. Software spending is expected to grow 9.8% to $674.9 billion in 2022; IT services are expected to grow 6.8% to $1.3 trillion (see Table 1).

Table 1. Forecast of global IT spending (in millions of US dollars)

Source: Gartner (April 2022)

Recent and long-term growth in enterprise application software, infrastructure software, and managed services suggests that digital transformation will not be a one- or two-year trend, but a long-term, systemic one. Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), for example, underpins all major consumer-centric online products and mobile applications, so almost all of the nearly 10% growth in software spending in 2022 will come from infrastructure-as-a-service.

Gartner predicts that digital business initiatives such as experiential end-use consumption patterns and supply chain optimization will drive double-digit growth in spending in enterprise applications and infrastructure software in 2023.

Chinese IT spending in 2022 is expected to exceed $550 million, an increase of 7.76% compared to 2021. Data center systems, IT services and software software will see double-digit growth (see Table 2).

Source: Gartner (April 2022)

John-David Lovelock, distinguished research vice president at Gartner, said: "CIOs will have access to the capital and organizational capabilities they need to invest in critical technologies this year and next. A portion of IT spending is driven by the Omicron variant and subsequent rounds of explosions. It was put on hold in early 2022 due to the pandemic, but it is expected to resume in the short term."

“If CIOs are to perform better in the long term, they must pay close attention to key market signals, such as the shift from analog to digital business, buy IT to build IT, etc., and collaborate with their partners Negotiate how to take ongoing risk. For that matter, only the most vulnerable businesses will be forced to switch to cost-cutting approaches in 2022 and beyond.”