Gartner has predicted that IT spend will reach US$1.1 trillion in 2024, expected to be fuelled by the investment into cloud security and IaaS which will prompt an increase in overall expenditure on IT services across Europe.
The research has predicted that there will be a 9.3% increase on a projected total of US$1 trillion this year on IT spending with cloud computing being a large contributor as Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), for example, is expected to surge 27% across 2024.
CIOs’ focus is said to be on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Generative AI which is also contributing to the drive in cloud spending as AI-related security risks are driving spending on both the integration of the technology along with underpinning safeguards.
The consultancy has said that this underlines shifting priorities among businesses during a period of economic uncertainty as businesses prepare themselves for the future while spending on other areas such as security and risk management are projected to reach around US$56 billion, marking an increase of 16% compared to 2023.
In a separate forecast, the consultancy predicted that end-user spending on public cloud services will reach US$678.8 billion, surging by 20.4% across 2024.
Josh Boer, Director at Tech Consultancy VeUP, commented: “Cloud services are rapidly increasing in popularity, offering numerous businesses benefits such as flexibility, agility, cost optimisation and enhanced innovation. It is expected that the demand for cloud will continue to grow in the coming years and for businesses that wish to keep up with digital transformations that are happening across the marketplace, tapping into the benefits cloud environments bring is a must. AWS, in particular, enables businesses to increase innovation while driving down costs through a tailored suite of services that cater to an organisation’s specific needs.
“For businesses to successfully transition, providers must ensure issues are addressed, supporting businesses in the implementation process while ensuring that cost-related issues which can appear later down the line are mitigated. Once problems are addressed, businesses can enjoy the full benefits cloud has to offer allowing them to navigate through market shifts using scalable resources.”
John-David Lovelock, Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner, said: “Despite a conflated economic situation, IT spending in Europe continues to be recession-proof. CIOs in Europe who pursued the ‘growth at all costs’ strategy for over a decade are now shifting the emphasis of ongoing IT projects towards cost control, efficiencies and automation, while curtailing IT initiatives with longer ROIs.
“AI has also added a new level of concern around security – ensuring that their systems are wrapped before hackers get near their sensitive data.”
