IT Budgets Are Growing. Here is Where the Money is Going

October 21, 2021
Contributor: Kasey Panetta

Composable business is driving investing choices for the year ahead.

CIOs expect more budget in 2022 and they are spending it to fund composable business.

Over the next year, CIOs expect IT budgets to grow 3.6%—the fastest year-over-year growth rate in more than a decade, according to the 2022 Gartner CIO and Technology Executive Survey. That is a global average, with APAC CIOs expecting the greatest change (3.9%) and North American CIOs the smallest (3.1%).

Download now: 2022 CIO Agenda: Create an Action Plan to Master Business Composability

This is the list of emerging technologies that CIOs and IT leaders are investing in.

This budget growth gives CIOs and technology executive leaders an opportunity to invest in new technologies. Most are choosing those that help guard the business against the constant volatility caused by the pandemic, trade wars, climate change and other internal and external changes.

Artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) top the list of technologies, with 48% of CIOs and technology executives having deployed or are planning to deploy these technologies in the next 12 months. Just behind AI/ML are distributed cloud (44%), secure access service edge (SASE) (32%), edge computing (27%), and multi-experience development platform (25%).

These new technology investments all support a move towards more composable business, but these investment choices face competition—most notably from cybersecurity. The survey found when it comes to existing investments, 66% of leaders plan to increase the amount they spend on cyber/information security.