IT spending across the globe is set to decline by 8 percent this year as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, according to global research and advisory company Gartner.
Global IT spending for 2020 is projected to be around $3.4 trillion.
Last year, Gartner predicted that global IT spending was expected to rebound in 2020 with forecast growth of 3.7 percent, primarily due to enterprise software spending. However, this was prior to coronavirus pandemic, which was first reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan in November 2020.
John-David Lovelock, distinguished research vice president at Gartner told the media, “CIOs have moved into emergency cost optimization which means that investments will be minimized and prioritized on operations that keep the business running, which will be the top priority for most organizations through 2020.”
“Recovery will not follow previous patterns as the forces behind this recession will create both supply-side and demand-side shocks as the public health, social and commercial restrictions begin to lessen.”
Gartner predicts that spending in public cloud services, cloud-based telephony and messaging, and cloud-based conferencing will increase substantially due to the pandemic.
“In 2020, some longer-term cloud-based transformational projects may be put on hiatus, but the overall cloud spending levels Gartner was projecting for 2023 and 2024 will now be showing up as early as 2022,” Lovelock added.
To curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, governments across nations have asked their citizens to maintain a state of lockdown and practice social distancing. Borders have also been sealed, while airlines have suspended almost all operations since March.