The latest forecast from Gartner projects that worldwide IT spending will total $4.5 trillion in 2022, growing by 5.1% year-on-year

Despite potential impacts of the Omicron variant, economic recovery with high expectations for digital market prosperity will continue to boost IT spending, according to Gartner.

The highest performing segment for IT spending growth is set to be enterprise software, according to the report — a surge of 11% from 2021 to total $750 billion in 2022.

Meanwhile, the IT services segment – which includes consulting and managed services – is forecasted to have the second highest spending growth, reaching $1.3 trillion, up 7.9% from 2021.

“2022 is the year that the future returns for the CIO,” said John-David Lovelock, distinguished research vice-president at Gartner.

“They are now in a position to move beyond the critical, short term projects over the past two years and focus on the long term. Simultaneously, staff skills gaps, wage inflation and the war for talent will push CIOs to rely more on consultancies and managed service firms to pursue their digital strategies.”

Through 2025, organisations will increase their reliance on external consultants, as the greater urgency and accelerated pace of change widen the gap between digital business ambitions and their internal resources and capabilities, according to Gartner.

Additionally, Gartner expects the enterprise application software market to be double the size of the non-cloud market by 2025.

Cloud is responsible for nearly all of the 11% spending growth within the enterprise software segment in 2022, as organisations focus on upgrading software stacks to software-as-a-service (SaaS), to support continued flexibility and agility.

Lovelock continued: “This will be particularly poignant with cloud as it serves as a key element in achieving digital ambitions and supporting hybrid work.

“Gartner expects the vast majority of large organisations to use external consultants to develop their cloud strategy over the next few years.”