Hollie Buttaci

How 2018 unfolded and what we see happening in 2019

2018 wasn’t a particularly straightforward year, there were many factors such as Brexit - big political decisions that came with that and on top of that the media were forecasting a slowdown of UK GDP growth. All this gave the feeling of doom and gloom. Thankfully due to the great British resolve, for the most part, these factors were sidelined by businesses with the attitude of ‘We just need to get on with it, irrespective’. For us as a business it did really feel like business as usual, just with a side of caution.

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Cloud, enterprise software to drive 2019 IT spending, says Gartner

Software as a service will boost 2019 enterprise software spending 8.3 percent. Overall, IT spending will grow 3.2 percent in 2019.

Global IT spending is expected to grow 3.2 percent in 2019 to $3.8 trillion as enterprise software, cloud and digital transformation projects boost growth, according to Gartner.

The projection, outlined at Gartner's Symposium/ITXpo in Orlando, accounts for a shift to everything as a service. John-David Lovelock, an analyst at Gartner, noted that enterprises are shifting to pay for use models and that's impacting for the forecast. 

For instance, software as a service will boost 2019 enterprise software spending 8.3 percent. IT services will grow at a 4.7 percent clip in 2019 due to digital transformation. Data center systems spending will grow 1.6 percent in 2019 since enterprises are more inclined to go cloud than buy their own gear.

The growth in IT spending is due to a favorable business climate, but there are a bevy of wild cards including tariffs and currency fluctuations. 

Other key points from Gartner:

• Server sales will fall 1 percent to 3 percent every year for the next five years.
• IT services will grow because enterprises are looking to optimize spending.
• PC, tablets and mobile phone spending will grow 2.4 percent in 2019. Demand for enterprise PCs should remain strong until 2020 due to the Windows 10 upgrade cycle. But the PC market may be held back due to the Intel CPU shortage.

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