Total information and communications technology (ICT) spending in the Middle East, Turkey and Africa (META) will reach $233.8 billion this year, up 3.9% from 2022, according to the latest forecast from the International Data Corporation (IDC).
More than 400 senior executives from the region’s most influential technology vendors, telecom operators and IT service providers gather at The Ritz-Carlton, Dubai International Financial Center for IDC Middle East, Turkey and Africa 2023 , published the forecast. .
IDC revealed that telecom service spending is expected to grow 3.6% year-on-year to $133.9 billion in 2023, of which IT spending will grow 4.3% year-on-year to $99.9 billion.
As the region’s digital economy takes shape, IDC predicts that digital transformation spending in the META region will top $48.8 billion in 2023 and accelerate at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16% over the next few years to top $74 billion Dollar mark 2026.
“Throughout 2023, the region will continue to face a number of headwinds, including demand volatility, high inflation, rising interest rates, supply chain uncertainty, and currency volatility,” said Jyoti Lalchandani, IDC Group Vice President and Regional Managing Director for the META region. To weather these disruptive storms, organizations need to invest in strengthening their digital resilience to better succeed in new market environments amidst changing conditions.
“Irrespective of economic conditions over the next 12 months, further digitization in key areas such as customer experience, operations and financial management, and a faster shift to a ‘digital business’ approach will be key to differentiating the winners from the survivors. To this end , we expect digital transformation spending to continue growing as a percentage of total IT spending, from 29.4 percent in 2021 to 43.2 percent in 2026.
Lalchandani opened the session “Managing Disruption Storms to 2023 and Beyond: Technology Market Outlook in the META Region”, explaining that the shift to a “digital-first” approach requires businesses to transform from inefficient legacy infrastructure that was never flexible And difficult to scale to a highly responsive, elastic and adaptable infrastructure across edge, core and cloud.
He also outlined IDC’s forecast for the META region to 2023. Key highlights include:
• Spending on public cloud services will grow 25.0% to more than $10.4 billion by 2023.
• By 2023, SaaS applications will account for 43.2% of public cloud software spending, with IaaS accounting for 24.5%, system infrastructure SaaS and PaaS accounting for 18.1% and 14.2%, respectively.
• Cloud hosting services will grow 16.1% to exceed $1 billion by 2023 and $1.4 billion by 2025.
• Big data analytics spending will grow 11.4 percent to $4.1 billion by 2023.
• AI spending will grow 16.3% to $7.9 billion by 2023.
• RPA software spending will grow 34.5% to more than $192.7 million by 2023.
IDC Worldwide President Crawford Del Prete delivered the event’s keynote address, “A Global Strategy to Drive Better Outcomes,” in which he explained that by 2026, 40 percent of the total revenue of G2000 organizations will % will come from digital products, services and experiences. He also noted that by 2027, more than one-third of public companies will be digitally native.
This was followed by a session titled “Beyond Uncertainty: Preparing for a New Tech World Order,” moderated by Steven Frantzen, Senior Vice President and Regional Managing Director, EMEA, IDC. At this session, he argued that the response to recessionary pressure in 2023 will be different than in the past.
“As technology leaders navigate global economic uncertainty, they will adopt strategies that differ from those used in past recessions,” Frantzen said. “In a digital-first economy, where a company’s competitiveness is tied to its digital business model, leaders will avoid massive technology cuts. Furthermore, in the first potential ‘as-a-service’ recession, cloud accounts for 40% of enterprise IT Spending and withdrawing these investments will be complex. However, new strategies will be employed as technology leaders seek to maximize business value from their technology investments. – TradeArabia News Service