Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2022. Read them in this 14th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
And The Survey Says… Technology Spending Will Take off in 2022
By Peter Tsai, Head of Technology Insights at Spiceworks Ziff Davis (SWZD)
Spiceworks Ziff Davis (SWZD) has longstanding, close relationships with millions of IT professionals around the world, allowing us to keep our fingers on the pulse of industry shifts as they happen.
As a result, we’re able to share forward-looking data to help IT departments and tech vendors prepare for what’s to come. For example, our annual State of IT report offers actionable insights on the future of tech spending and adoption plans.
Throughout the pandemic and the shift to flexible work, we’ve seen companies prioritize spending on IT projects and solutions to empower remote employees and maintain business continuity. For example, more than one-third of companies accelerated cloud migration and digital transformation efforts due to COVID-19, largely to support, secure, and encourage collaboration in a hybrid working environment
IT industry predictions for 2022 and beyond
Looking forward, we see new IT projects and the need to support remote workers continuing to drive change in 2022… And there’s good news on the economic front as well. Based on in-depth studies that draw on the feedback from thousands of IT professionals, we’ve made the following predictions for 2022:
1. Businesses are very optimistic about the year to come. Our 2022 State of IT report revealed that companies anticipate growth in their top line numbers, with 61% of companies expecting their revenues to increase year-over-year (YoY). While this expected growth will lead to more tech spending, it won’t be the primary factor driving IT budget growth in 2022.
2. Good news for tech vendors: Most businesses (53%) will grow tech budgets YoY, driven primarily by an increased priority on IT projects, the need to upgrade outdated infrastructure, employee growth, and to support and secure remote workers. Among companies increasing tech spending in North America and Europe, budgets will grow by 26%, on average.
3. IT budget share allocated to cloud and managed services will grow YoY, accounting for a combined 43% of tech budgets in 2022, up from 40% in 2021. At the same time, on-premises hardware and software spending will continue to contract YoY… especially in areas associated with on-prem infrastructure (e.g., servers, operating systems, virtualization).
4. There will be a lot of movement in the workforce next year. One quarter of IT professionals plan to look for or change jobs in 2022, and competition for tech workers will be fierce. Our study found 40% of companies plan to hire additional IT staff over the next 12 months, with that number jumping to 60% in enterprises (500+ employees). Among IT job seekers, 86% will consider remote roles.
5. Our Cloud Trends in 2021 and Beyond report revealed we’re at a tipping point: 50% of business workloads are expected to run in public clouds by 2023, up from 40% in 2021. Two major reasons why: Most IT professionals now believe that the cost of using public cloud is cheaper than self-hosting (53%) and that cloud providers can offer superior security compared to what they can provide in their own data center (54%).
6. While remote work is accelerating tech transformation, our Future of Remote Work report showed that not all geographic areas are embracing the “remote work revolution.” Our research found 30% of employees working for businesses based in urban or suburban areas will go remote permanently compared to only 12% of employees working for rural companies. Workers in rural areas are more likely to report a stigma around remote work and a lack of infrastructure hindering remote work.
And there you have it, SWZD’s predictions for 2022, based on feedback from thousands of IT professionals working in the trenches. For even more in-depth data on the state of the IT industry, make sure to check out all of our research at SWZD.com.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Peter Tsai is Head of Technology Insights at Spiceworks Ziff Davis (SWZD), the trusted global marketplace that connects technology buyers and sellers. Over the course of more than two decades, he has lived IT from the inside and out, working as a systems administrator, programmer, and server engineer. Peter now conducts business technology research and shares valuable tech insights through content that helps IT professionals and tech vendors do their jobs better every day.
