The most recent research by Gartner predicts that IT spending will soar in 2015. IT investment capital is slated to reach the unprecedented mark of $3.8 billion by year’s end. Such an upsurge in information technology investment would clearly make for an excellent time to begin a career in the tech industry. As 36 percent of IT recruiters in Australia believe their staffs will grow this year, there is reason to believe that Gartner’s lofty prediction is credible.

The Mobile Devices Market

One growth area that encourages many to invest in technology is the mobile device market. Although sales of certain devices, tablets for example, may be slowing slightly, the overall picture is still benign. A 5.1 percent increase in mobile sales is expected, totalling some $730 billion. Despite currency exchange changes dragging that number down to an “actual” 3.7 percent growth rate, the outlook is still quite rosy.

Mobile Device Infrastructure

A second skyrocketing sector is infrastructure to support the boom in mobile devices. About 35 percent of Gartner-surveyed organizations plan to commit a large chunk of IT spending to mobile-device management, remote-access tools, and RFID tech. In fact, there seems to be more IT investment nowadays in the infrastructure than in the mobile devices themselves. Many companies, for example, are investing heavily in programs that provide secure mobile-device access to in-house data systems by employees using their own personal mobile devices.

App Development

Thirty-eight percent of those surveyed had plans for major IT spending on developing applications, whether mobile or desktop. This included both upgrades of existing apps and replacements of old apps with newer and better ones. Some major companies even have plans to spend more on app development than on any other single tech sector. Much of this is likely to be outsourced to specialists since an app expert is lacking in many companies’ IT departments.

Business Analytics

Of those surveyed by Gartner, 38 percent say that business analytics will be a major IT investment concern in the year ahead. A huge quantity of information on businesses and customers is generated by social media sites and by the Internet in general. This data, however, must be “mined” and interpreted if it is to be utilised in a way that businesses can benefit from.

Security Technology

Computerworld predicts that this year will see record-breaking sums spent on developing more effective security technology. Forty-six percent of those queried in a recent Computerworld survey indicate that prevention of unauthorized access, viral attacks, and identity theft are top priorities. This is not surprising since all other information technology investment would be for naught unless it is protected by advanced security systems.

Enterprise Software

Despite cuts in local servers and company legacy systems, Gartner predicts a 5.5 percent increase in spending on enterprise software. The overall move towards storing data on more economical off-site clouds may eventually lead to a decrease in IT spending in this sector, but the battle is not yet over. Some 75 percent of most IT budgets still go to maintenance of in-house servers, and it will take time to move so much valuable data safely to a new locale. Thus, even if the cloud system eventually displaces private servers, enterprise software continues for now to be a rapidly growing IT investment sector.

IT Cuts

While most areas of information technology investment are growing by leaps and bounds, a few notable exceptions exist. This is only to be expected since companies do not have limitless IT budgets and must keep cost-control a top priority if they expect to be competitive. The Computerworld survey found that 24 percent of those surveyed will shrink IT spending on local servers and on equipment like laptops and desktops. Among IT equipment, only mobile devices continue to attract increases in IT investment.

Conclusion

In general, the forecast suggests that this year will be an opportune time to invest in technology. Information technology investment is growing in many sectors, including mobile devices, mobile-device infrastructure, application development, business analytics, security technology, and enterprise software development. A few sectors, like in-house servers and non-mobile equipment, are experiencing shrinkage. The global pictures is one of an IT market that is expanding rapidly year on year with no end-limits yet in sight.