EDITOR ’ S QUESTION
WHAT DOES EUROPE ’ S TECH LANDSCAPE LOOK LIKE FOR THE YEAR AHEAD ?
In its new Worldwide Black Book Live Edition International Data Corporation ( IDC ) stated that the European ICT market was expected to grow year on year by 4.1 % in 2022 in constant currency terms . It also stated that in current annual value , the market will decrease year on year by 3.2 % in 2022 , due to exchange rate fluctuations , including the continuous drop of the euro against the US dollar . This currency value drop was due to the Russia / Ukraine war , which is negatively impacting the overall eurozone economy , with increased prices for oil , gas and food , as well as suspended natural gas supply from Russia . Growing inflation , supply chain constraints and geopolitical conflicts will also negatively affect the European PC and tablet markets , which will inhibit overall ICT spending in the region . cloud in order to make IT budgets more stable and ensure Business Continuity , especially in periods of recession or disruption .
Software spending in Europe is expected to stay more or less stable over the coming five years , as organisations rely on software to support their Digital Transformation initiatives . Investments in cloud software will exceed 40 % of total software spending and post a double-digit growth rate to surpass noncloud software spending in 2024 . Cloud migration will become a priority for organisations , with a focus on AI platforms , collaborating applications and security solutions and cloud-related spending will surpass spending on traditional software deployment in one to two years .
In contrast , despite the unfavourable macroeconomic environment , spending on software and security hardware in Europe is expected to stay relatively stable over the next few years . Cloud has emerged as a key technology for helping organisations increase their resiliency , and the latest version of the Black Book Live now includes a cloud spending view of the market . Overall cloud-related spending in Europe is forecast to constitute almost one-third of total technology spending in 2022 and its share will keep increasing over the next five years .
Many IT services providers will continue to expand the scope of their cloud professional services and managed cloud services , including planning , deployment , implementation and management of cloud environments in order to assist customers at any stage of their cloud journey . This will drive cloud-oriented services spending to exceed 25 % of the total services spending in Europe in 2022 . Cloud-related services spending in Europe will record a growth rate between 16 % and 19 % over the next five years .
Almost 43 % of the total spending on server and storage markets in Europe in 2022 is expected to be focused on cloud enablement ; this figure will grow rapidly in the next few years , making up half of this infrastructure spending by 2024 . Many companies will continue to invest in modernisation of their infrastructure , which entails an accelerated shift to
“ European companies are considering cloud adoption to help them overcome the disruptive effects of the worsening economic and geopolitical situation ,” said Lubomir Dimitrov , Research Manager for IDC European Data & Analytics . “ Business Continuity , security and Disaster Recovery plans will be the main focus of cloud deployments .”
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