Gartner’s Top 5 Biggest IT Sales Growth Markets For 2022

Worldwide IT spending will hit $4.47 trillion in 2022, according to new data from Gartner. Here’s the projected spending growth rate and dollars expected in data center systems, software, devices and services next year.

IT Spending To Reach $4.47 Trillion In 2022

The world’s demand for IT products and services—from data center systems and software to communication services—will not slow down in 2022. Global IT spending will reach $4.47 trillion next year, representing an increase of 5.5 percent compared to 2021, according to new data from IT research firm Gartner.

Gartner’s John-David Lovelock said people’s “willingness and eagerness” to adopt technology and “use it in different ways” changed in 2020 and 2021 spurred by the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic.

“In 2022, CIOs need to reconfigure how work is done by embracing business composability and the technologies that accommodate asynchronous workflows,” said Lovelock, distinguished research vice president at Gartner, in a statement.

With 2022 approaching, more companies aim to empower employees to work wherever they choose and to engage with customers however they prefer, which is why Gartner predicts IT communications services will hit a whopping $1.48 trillion next year.

CRN breaks down Gartner’s 2022 IT spending forecast for the five fastest growing and biggest technology market segments which consists of data center systems, enterprise software, devices, IT services and communications services.

No. 5: Communications Services To Grow 2.1%

2022 Spending: $1.48 Trillion

2021 Spending: $1.45 Trillion

Although communications services will see the slowest growth rate percentage-wise in 2022 compared to 2021, these services will have the largest total spending levels next year.

Worldwide spending on communications services is projected to reach $1.482 trillion in 2022, representing a growth rate of 2.1 percent year over year. For 2021, Gartner is predicting that the communications services market will hit $1.451 trillion.

The COVID pandemic caused a contrary trend of pushing companies outside of their comfort zone while lockdowns forced people to stay in the comfort of their homes. Gartner said companies that had, prior to COVID, eschewed even the possibility of work from home were forced to embrace it in a matter of weeks. This has made IT communications software and services more critical to companies than ever before.

The $1.451 trillion in communications services spending in 2021 represents a nearly 4 percent increase compared to 2020.

No. 4: Devices To Grow 2.3%

2022 Spending: $821 Billion

2021 Spending: $802 Billion

Global spending growth on devices reached an all-time high in 2021 as remote work, telehealth and remote learning took hold. However, Gartner expects 2022 will still show an uptick in enterprises that upgrade devices or invest in multiple devices to thrive in a hybrid work setting.

Worldwide spending in IT devices in 2022 is expected to hit $821 billion, representing an increase of 2.3 percent year over year. The previous record on IT device spending is this year, with Gartner projecting device spending will reach $802 billion, which will be a whopping 15 percent spike compared to 2020.

From devices like cameras with data analytics capabilities, to millions of nternet of Things (IoT) devices coming online this year, Gartner predicts companies spending money on IT devices won’t slow down in 2022.

No. 3: Data Center Systems To Grow 5.8%

2022 Spending: $207 Billion

2021 Spending: $196 Billion

There is little debate on whenever the future of the enterprise will be public cloud or the data center, as companies are betting on both. Businesses and vendors of all shapes and sizes are transforming their IT environments and products for the multi-cloud and hybrid cloud world, which is a mix of data center or on-premise solutions alongside multiple cloud offerings.

Gartner predicts that data center systems spending in 2022 will hit $207 billion, representing a 5.8 percent increased year over year.

This year, data center systems spending is projected to be $196 billion, which would represent a nearly 10 percent increase compared to 2020.

The data center systems market saw little impact from the COVID-19 pandemic as companies invested in a mix of new infrastructure like servers and hyperconverged infrastructure as well as hybrid cloud offerings. Experts say where to customers are placing applications and workloads—either in the cloud or in the data center—depends on each specific apps or workload, rather than a one-stop-shop for everything.

No. 2: IT Services To Grow 8.6%

2022 Spending: $1.29 Trillion

2021 Spending: $1.19 Trillion

IT services are becoming one of the most critical assets a company needs to spend money on in order to keep business afloat. From cybersecurity services to thwart ransomware attacks to enabling customers’ Microsoft software suite, IT services are in high demand for nearly all organizations today as it unlocks the key to digital transformation.

“Digital tech initiatives remain a top strategic business priority for companies as they continue to reinvent the future of work, focusing spending on making their infrastructure bulletproof and accommodating increasingly complex hybrid work for employees going into 2022,” said Gartner’s Lovelock.

Gartner expects IT services spending to reach $1.294 trillion in 2022, representing an increase of 8.6 percent year over year.

In 2021, Gartner predicts that total IT services spending worldwide will hit $1.191 billion, which would be an increase of 11 percent year over year compared to 2020.

The more IT service offers and services sales channel partners provider, the more profitable they become.

No. 1: Enterprise Software To Grow 11.5%

2022 Spending: $670 Billion

2021 Spending: $601 Billion

Enterprise software is expected to have the highest growth rate in 2022 at 11.5 percent year over year, driven by infrastructure software spending continuing to outpace application software spending.

Gartner predicts spending on enterprise software will reach $670 billion in 2022, a whopping 11.5 percent greater than this year.

In 2021, Gartner expects enterprise software spending to hit $601 billion, which would represent an increase of 14 percent compared to 2020.

Communications software leaders like Microsoft, Zoom and Cisco are pouring millions into improving security features and new capabilities to meet new demands. Other software leaders like VMware, Oracle, SAP and Salesforce have seen solid software sales growth over the past 18 months as customers invest more in management solutions like CRM and ERP as well as SaaS offerings.