42% of enterprises (1000+) see remote work enablement as a key driver for IT device budget increases.
While hardware will still account for the largest slice of IT spending in 2021, hardware budgets as a percentage of total IT budgets have dropped significantly in the last two years — from 35% in 2019 to 31% in 2021. As in previous years, software represents the second biggest IT spending category, remaining steady as a percentage of overall spend YoY.
Diving deeper into hardware spend, the greatest portion of hardware budgets in enterprises will go towards laptops (13-15%), desktops (10-12%), and servers (11-12%) in 2021. The push towards remote work has accelerated the shift towards more portable devices with many businesses making recent investments in laptops. Enterprises (1000+ employees) will spend proportionally 9%, of their hardware budgets on security appliances.
On a regional basis, North American businesses are significantly more likely than European businesses to purchase modern technology due to end of life, upgrade/refresh cycles, growth/additional need, project need, end-user need, and budget availability. European businesses are significantly more likely to buy new tech because of the need for better customer support and the need for better tech expertise than their North American counterparts.
IT automation technology is the biggest area of IT spend (according to 81% of large enterprises) being implemented or planned within the next 2 years. This is a trend we are also observing as increasingly Markit clients are automating their IT purchasing through punchout connections with our IT marketplace.
Markit grew in 2020 as more companies chose to source their IT hardware and accessories through our marketplace and we also predict an uptick in IT device spending in 2021 by many of our clients.
Read the full State of IT 2021: Budgets and Tech Trends report