"Australia's IT spending is showing its strongest growth in a decade, and we expect growth rates of around 5 to 6% to continue for the next few years," said Gartner distinguished research vice president John-David Lovelock.

"This growth has been driven by business rather than consumer spending. The falling US dollar has also provided currency tailwinds."

The strongest growth – 14.2% – is expected in enterprise software, followed by 6.1% on IT services, 4.6% on devices (primarily PCs and tablets), and 3.7% on data centre systems.

Spending growth on devices peaked at 9% in 2021 as remote work and learning took hold, but Gartner expects growth to remain elevated in 2022 as a result of upgrades and the need to buy multiple devices to support hybrid working.

"Organisations are entering a new build phase as they accelerate the shift to digital business," said Lovelock.

"There's a lot more to do and less time to do it, and they need consulting services to help them get it done in time."

He added "What changed in 2020 and 2021 was not really the technology itself, but people's willingness and eagerness to adopt it and use it in different ways," said Lovelock. "In 2022, CIOs need to reconfigure how work is done by embracing business composability and the technologies that support it."

Further analysis is available here, and Gartner clients can read more here.

Image: CSIRO via Wikimedia Commons , CC BY 3.0.