IT spending in Malaysia seen rising 6.5% this year
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s IT spending is expected to grow 6.5% to reach almost RM68 billion in 2016, according to Gartner Worldwide IT Spending Forecast.
However, the growth rate is smaller at 1.5% when reported in US dollars due to currency fluctuations.
Comparatively, worldwide IT spending is forecast to be flat in 2016, totaling US$3.41 trillion (RM13.8 trillion), up from last quarter’s forecast of negative 0.5% growth. The change in the forecast is mainly due to currency fluctuations.
“The current Gartner Worldwide IT Spending Forecast assumes that the UK would not exit the European Union. With the UK’s exit, there will likely be an erosion in business confidence and price increases which will impact UK, Western Europe and worldwide IT spending,” said Gartner research vice-president John-David Lovelock in a statement last Friday.
He said the pace of change in IT will never again be as slow as it is now, but global IT spending growth is best described as lacklustre.
“2016 is the year that business focus turns to digital business, the Internet of Things and even algorithmic business. To fund these new initiatives, many businesses are turning to cost optimisation efforts centering around the new digital alternatives to save money, simplify operations and speed time to value. It is precisely this new breadth of alternatives to traditional IT that will fundamentally reshape what is bought, who buys it and how much will be spent.”
The Gartner Worldwide IT Spending Forecast is the leading indicator of major technology trends across the hardware, software, IT services and telecom markets.
According to the forecast, data center systems’ spending is projected to reach US$174 billion in 2016, a 2% increase from 2015, while global enterprise software spending is on pace to total US$332 billion, a 5.8% increase.
Device spending is projected to total US$627 billion by the end of 2016.
Spending in the IT services market is expected to increase 3.7%, totalling US$898 billion, with Japan the fastest-growing region for IT services spending with 8.9% growth.
Communications services spending is projected to total US$1.38 trillion in 2016, down 1.4% from 2015.