CRN.com reported that according to a new forecast from Gartner, worldwide IT spending will increase 4.2% in 2013 to $3.7 trillion, an increase from Gartner’s  most recent 2013 forecast of 3.8% However, much of the higher forecast is related to projected gains of foreign currencies against the U.S. dollar, according to Gartner. In constant dollars, the firm expects worldwide IT spending to increase 3.9%. The rate compares to Gartner's estimated IT spending growth of 1.2 percent for 2012, according to the report.

Gartner also reduced its long-term spending forecast on devices to an average of 4.5% annually from 2012 through 2016 in current U.S. dollars, down from 6.4%. The firm expects a "sharp reduction" in PC and tablet sales that will only be partially offset by growth in mobile phones and printers. 

According to the report, Gartner expects data center systems spending to increase 4.5% in 2013 to $147 billion, enterprise software to increase 6.4% to $296 billion, IT services to increase 5.2% to $927 billion and telecom services to increase 2.4% to $1.70 trillion.

Within enterprise software, spending growth will be driven by security, storage management and CRM solutions in 2013, while big data solutions including enterprise content management, data integration tools and data quality tools will begin to see increased levels of investment in 2014, according to Gartner.