BYOD, IaaS and economy clip wings of outsourcing market

ITO market will hit $288bn this year but growth constrained by a number of factors, says Gartner

The IT outsourcing market will swell by more than five per cent this year but many segments of the market will not grow as quickly as previously predicted, according to Gartner.

The market watcher believes the ITO market will reach $288bn (£190bn) in 2013, up 5.1 per cent in constant currency.

But compared with Gartner's previous predictions, nearly all ITO segments are now forecast to grow more slowly during 2013, it added.

Gartner research vice president Bryan Britz said the market would be constrained by factors such as evolving ITO delivery models, economic, political and labour conditions and service provider financial performance.

"Mature Asia-Pacific and western Europe are the regions where the outlook is most tempered, partly due to currency but also reflective of our view that 2013 is likely to be similar to 2012 in these regions," he said.

The global market for datacentre outsourcing is gradually declining as more firms move workloads to IaaS and IUS [infrastructure utility services], Gartner said.

BYOD was also fingered as a threat to ITO growth as enterprise support requirements for end-user devices shrinks.

Having said that, outsourced support for mobile end-user devices will grow strongly through to 2017 due to increased enterprise adoption of smartphones and tablets, Gartner added. But desktop outsourcing is in gradual decline that would be sharper were it not for uptake in Latin America and Asia-Pac.