Market researcher Gartner:

Spending on data centers about to jump significantly

Compute-intensive AI research in particular is increasing the demand for server farms.(Bild: Photocreo Bednarek - stock.adobe.com)

Global investment in information technology will increase more than previously thought in 2024, according to experts from consultancy firm Gartner. He expects an increase of eight percent to 5.06 trillion dollars (4.8 trillion euros), said analyst John-David Lovelock. At the beginning of the year, experts had predicted an increase of 6.8 percent.

The growth in IT services is striking. "The forecast growth here is 9.7 percent to over 1.52 trillion dollars. This means that this category could soon become the largest market monitored by Gartner."

As many companies have difficulties recruiting suitable staff, they are increasingly reliant on IT service providers. With an expected volume of 1.55 trillion dollars, the costs for communication services will remain the largest IT expenditure item in the current year.

Investments in data centers are also making a big leap, with growth forecast to more than double to ten percent. This reflects the growing demand for computing-intensive artificial intelligence (AI). The Gartner experts assume that cloud providers worldwide will invest almost 260 billion dollars in new server farms.