IT spending to hit $1.6tn

IDC forecasts worldwide IT spending will be $1.6 trillion in 2011, an increase of 5.7% over 2010, reports Computer Weekly.

IDC expects hardware spending will grow 7.8% year-on-year, and 12.8% growth will show in software and services.

The biggest growth area will be in public cloud services, according to IDC. Organisations will move a wider range of business applications into the cloud and SME business cloud use is predicted to surge in 2011.

Technology solutions provider, Dell, says it would focus on the largely untapped SME market next year, writes Sun Star.

Christopher Papa, Dell Philippines country manager, says there is a big opportunity for the company based on the October 2010 report of the International Data Corporation, citing that 45% of SMEs are keen to spend on IT for long-term growth.

“That's where the opportunities and revenues are [SMEs]. We really welcome this development because we noted that some of them don't have existing IT infrastructure. That's where we want to leverage growth,” he says.

Small businesses remain mired in bad business practices and unaware of technology that can save them money, states eChannel Line.

That's the findings of the Lenovo-AMD Small Business Tech Survey, which sought to identify common issues and trends in technology use by small businesses. The survey looked at companies with up to 500 employees, but the majority of respondents (88%) were from businesses with up to 100 employees.

"What struck me about this survey is that it is very behavioural," says Jay McBain, director of Small and Medium Business at Lenovo.