Technology All signs point to rising IT spending in 2023 • businessroundups.org Ana LopezDecember 12, 20220273 views But CIOs will be smarter about allocation You don’t need it to be a genius to see that we are in a period of great economic uncertainty. However, for startups, a key predictor of future results is the direction of IT spending, something we can track. If companies spend money on technology, the argument goes, both established and younger companies should benefit. And if they aren’t, they both have to suffer. The good news is that most signs point to an increase in IT spending in 2023, and that’s true whether you’re talking to CIOs, large corporations, or analysts. It bodes well for the entire technology industry. “The most important thing we’re hearing from CIOs is that technology is part of solving the business challenges posed by a recession.” IDC analyst Rick Villars Consider what Broadcom CEO Hock Tan said during last week’s earnings call: “We have spoken with several CIOs from our largest corporate clients that we have. We have not seen them talk about reducing their IT spending,” he said. While some talked about fixed expenses, few talked about spending cuts, and that’s an encouraging trend heading into the new year. That perspective fits with what IDC analyst Rick Villars sees. “Spending on core IT infrastructure, enterprise software, professional services to deploy and operate the systems – even if the economy remains flat, we expect continued healthy growth of 5% to 6% overall for those spaces. It would take a more severe economic downturn than what we’re seeing to change that,” Villars told businessroundups.org. That’s exactly where Gartner’s forecast also comes into play: an increase of 5.1% in global IT spending in 2023. That’s more than the 0.8% growth in 2022, but much less than last year’s 10.2% increase. What do they spend on?