JOHANNESBURG, SPENDING on information technology (IT) is set to total more than R303 billion ($21,78 billion) in South Africa in 2019, a 3,9 percent increase that will make the country one of the fastest-growing markets globally.

Gartner, the world’s leading research and advisory company, the adoption of Cloud Computing will be key to the growth as this technology keeps rising in the Southern African country.

The total spending is put at R303,46 billion.

Software spending in South Africa will reach R32 billion in 2019, a 11,4 percent increase from 2018.

Cloud computing is a new reality in South Africa, said John-David Lovelock, distinguished research vice president at Gartner.

He said South African organisations were consuming significant amounts of cloud services, including software as a service, platform as a service and infrastructure as a service.

Lovelock said Chief Information Officers (CIOs) had to decide whether to build on-premises data centres or use the public cloud.

With both Microsoft and Amazon planning to open local hyperscale data centres in 2020, adoption and use of the cloud will only increase in South Africa, he said.

However, consumer spending, which was once the IT spending highlight in South Africa, is set to slow down.

Gartner expects consumer spending on devices � PCs, tablets and mobile phones � to fall by 2020, and to keep contracting through 2023.

Saturation in the PC, mobile phone and tablet device markets has limited the number of new buyers. And spending on mobile phone replacements and upgrades won’t be enough to sustain current spending levels, Lovelock.

Source: CAJ News Agency