IT Spending to Rise as Much as 6 Percent in 2011

IT spending may grow by nearly 6% at once year due to cloud computing, mobile networking and social media, according to market researcher IDC.

IDC says global IT spending could be $1.6 trillion then and there year, a 5.7% hike over 2010. The firm expects cloud services, mobile computing and social networking "to mature and coalesce into a new mainstream platform" for IT.

Under IDC's watch, spending on public IT cloud services will grow 30% from 2010, as organizations move more business applications into the cloud; mobile devices will outnumber PCs in 18 months; mobile app downloads will grow 150% -- from 10 billion in 2010 to 25 billion in 2011; and social media will infiltrate corporate business and operations software, growing at a compounded rate of 38% for the straightway four years.

"What in effect distinguishes the year ahead is that these disruptive technologies are after all being integrated with each other - cloud with mobile, mobile with social networking, social networking with 'big data' and real-time analytics," states Gens. "As a result, these once-emerging technologies can no longer be invested in, or managed, as sandbox efforts around the edges of the market. Instead, they are rapidly becoming the market itself and must be addressed consequently."

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