The U.S. technology budgets will increase by 7.4% in 2021 and 6.7% in 2022 according to a recent report by Forrester, entitled U.S. Tech Market Outlook By Category For 2021 And 2022.
The U.S. economy is expected to grow by 6% this year as pandemic restrictions are eased. Forrester’s previous report on the overall U.S. technology market predicted that the U.S. technology budget would grow by 6% in 2021 and 6.8% in 2022.
All categories of technology budgets will see increasing demand in 2021 and 2022, especially on software spending, with growth approaching 10% in 2021 and slightly above 11% in 2022.
These figures identify three key trends:
- On-premises technologies persist.
- Pure cloud solutions face increasing competition from hybrid cloud offerings.
- Customer software development stages a comeback with new middleware platforms.
The most important figures can be found below:
- Software will be the star of the U.S. technology market in 2021-2022, with software purchases set to grow most robustly, at almost 10% in 2021 and just over 11% in 2022. Middleware platforms are gaining strength as companies shift their focus to platforms, aided by the rise of security software, the absorption of AI features into the software suite, and a kind of rebirth in the development of customized apps.
- The single-instance cloud is becoming a competition for Software-as-a-service (SaaS). With a single-instance subscription pricing model, the cloud is promising because each customer has their own single-instance software that they can customize and modify as needed. SaaS subscription revenue growth will slow in 2021 and increase even further in 2022 due to the growing popularity of the single-instance cloud.
- With the economic recovery, CIOs and their business partners will have the scope to increase project spending, leading to an increase in demand for tech consulting and system integration (SI) services.
- Equipment and telecommunications services will experience moderate growth, and after spending on communications equipment and telecommunications services is cut in 2020, these two categories, along with computer equipment, will revert to previous patterns of slow growth by 2022. Certain industries, such as financial services and governments, will drive cloud growth and support the increase in server sales.
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