Economic Signs Mostly Positive for IT Spending

IT spending is expected to grow by 3.4 percent this year, with the small- and midsize business sector continuing to fuel that growth. But is it all good news?

According to an article by John Roberts on the Information Week website, the survey of 51 economic forecasters by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia found that the key drivers of that growth will be managed services, OS upgrades and migrations, blade servers and remote access servers.

Roberts does say the economic outlook still has some “dark clouds” to contend with, noting that CRN research data found that last September the average per-firm technology spending by midsize companies dropped 17 percent. The average per-firm spending dropped from $41,500 in August to $34,500 in September, Roberts says, although that amount increased slightly in October, with the average increasing to $38,600.

However, despite these uncertainties, Roberts says “the climate for business technology investment should remain solid. Market researcher Forrester Research is forecasting a 7 percent increase in IT spending in 2006, the same as in 2005,” he writes.

Some areas that are expected to see growth are in the IT security arena, including disaster recovery and secure instant messaging, Roberts says.