Global IT spending to hit $3.5tn in 2017

So what is driving the 2.4 per cent spike from last year?

Gartner has accredited the impact of digital business and disruptive technology such as the Internet of Things (IoT) for why worldwide IT spending is projected to total $3.5tn (£2.7tn) in 2017.

The projection is a 2.4 per cent increase from 2016 as digital business gives rise to attractive new categories of technology.

The research house also cited the declining US dollar for the growth rate being up from the previous quarter's forecast of 1.4 per cent.

"Digital business is having a profound effect on the way business is done and how it is supported," said John-David Lovelock, vice president and analyst at Gartner.

"The impact of digital business is giving rise to new categories. For example, the convergence of 'software plus services plus intellectual property'."

Lovelock said impactful industry-specific disruptive technologies include IoT in manufacturing, blockchain in financial services and other industries, and smart machines in retail.

The worldwide enterprise software market is also forecast to grow 7.6 per cent in 2017, up from 5.3 per cent growth in 2016.

Gartner explained that as software applications allow more firms to grab revenue from digital business channels, there will be a stronger need to automate and release applications.

"With the increased adoption of SaaS-based enterprise applications, there also comes an increase in acceptance of IT operations management tools that are also delivered from the cloud," continued Lovelock.

"These cloud-based tools allow infrastructure and operations (I&O) organisations to more rapidly add functionality and adopt newer technologies to help them manage faster application release cycles."

Lovelock said if the I&O team does not monitor and track the rapidly changing environment, it risks infrastructure and application service degradation, which ultimately impacts the end-user experience and can have financial and brand repercussions.

Elsewhere, Gartner found worldwide spending on devices — PCs, tablets, ultramobiles and mobile phones — is projected to grow 3.8 per cent in 2017, to reach $654bn.