Forrester findings good news for Cisco, everyone else

Reseach firm says spending going up, downturn 'unofficially over'

Forrester Research declared the technology downturn of the last two years "unofficially over" as it forecasts a healthy recovery in IT spending for 2010. Colleague Denise Dubie summarizes Forrester's outlook here.

IT spending in the US will grow 6.6% this year to $568 billion after an 8.2% decline in 2009, according to Forrester. Global IT spending will rise 8.1% in 2010 to more than $1.6 trillion after dropping off 8.9% last year, the firm found.

"The technology downturn of 2008 and 2009 is unofficially over," states Andrew Bartels, Forrester Research vice president and principal analyst. Bartels says technology spending in the US this year will be twice the rate of the GDP.

Software and computer hardware will see the greatest growth, the firm states, with 9.7% and 8.2% growth, respectively. Spending on communications equipment will rise by 7.6%, while purchases of IT consulting and systems integration services will grow by 6.8% and IT outsourcing services will see spending growth of 7.1%.

Bartels says this year's spending recovery will kick off a 6-7 year cycle of IT growth Forrester attributes to "Smart Computing" - the intersection of "awareness" technologies and business intelligence and analytics.

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• Cisco
• economic downturn
• Forrester Research
• IT spending