CompTIA: Digital transformation driving IT spending growth

This is going to be a good year for growth according to industry association CompTIA with customers looking to spend on a wide range of technologies to improve their competitiveness.

CompTIA has released its IT Industry Outlook 2018 and is forecasting 5% growth across the global tech sector this year. The outfit also tracks business confidence and has found that it is near its all time high with the largest tech players down to the specialist MSPs all feeling good about the short-term.

behind a lot of that growth will be a broad church of technologies that can be pitched as part of a digital transformation solution. CompTIA has produced a list of trends that the channel should keep an eye on this year (see box) which includes cloud, IoT and security as areas that will expand.

“Beyond strong economic fundamentals, the growth story revolves around the spending associated with companies entering new phases of digital transformation,” said Tim Herbert, CompTIA’s senior vice president for research and market intelligence.

“CEOs and boardrooms across every industry sector in the economy are waking up to the fact that inaction or even incrementalism may be inadequate in the face of rapidly changing business dynamics brought on by the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and related emerging technologies," he added.

One possible problem is the lack of skills which plagues the tech world and the pressure to find the right staff to be able to deliver digital transformation projects will remain a challenge throughout the year.

With demand for talented people outstripping supply firms will have to rethink their approaches to recruiting staff and training and managing those who are already on board.

The CompTIA findings add to a growing number of proclamations about what the year holds, with the likes of the Global Technology Distribution Council and analyst house Canalys among those expecting growth.