Global IT spending this year will increase by nearly 7%. Nearly half of data-center systems bought this year will be accelerators. Generative AI will soon automate 70% of all software tests. And 8 in 10 American adults use YouTube.
That’s some of the latest, greatest IT research. And here’s your Performance Intensive Computing roundup.
IT spending on the rise
IT spending worldwide will rise by nearly 7% this year over last year, predicts Gartner, for a 2024 total of $4.99 trillion. (Yes, the T is correct.)
The fastest-growing sector will be software. Gartner expects software spending worldwide to rise by nearly 13% this year, bringing total annual spending to slightly more than $1 trillion.
The second-fastest growth will come in data center systems, where Gartner predicts a spending rise this year of 7.5%, for a worldwide total of $261.3 billion.
The overall spending forecast of 6.8% is more than twice 2023’s spending increase of just 3.3%. Last year, CIOs experienced what Gartner calls “change fatigue.” That manifested itself in unsigned contracts and unformed tech partnerships.
What about generative AI? Gartner says the technology won’t impact IT spending significantly this year. Instead, organizations this year will mainly plan how they’ll use GenAI in the future.
Diving with ‘accelerators’
Spending on semiconductors used in data-center systems will enjoy a 5-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25%, reaching $286 billion in 2028, expects Dell’Oro Group.
Dell’Oro expects nearly half of that will go to ‘accelerators,’ most of them GPUs. In 2023, it adds, data-center accelerator revenue surpassed that of CPUs for the first time. Over the next 5 years, this gap will widen further.
“Ultimately,” says Dell’Oro senior research director Baron Fung, “this will enhance overall efficiency in data centers.”
GenAI for software testing
By 2028—just 4 years off—GenAI tools will be able to write 70% of all software tests, according to a forecast from IDC.
That will not only lower the need for manual testing, but also improve test coverage, software usability and code quality, IDC adds.
It’s a big deal. In IDC’s own survey of IT leaders in the Asia-Pacific region, nearly half the respondents (48%) said code review and testing is one of the most important tasks AI could help with.
To do this, a GenAI tool uses AI algorithms to generate and manage test scripts. This can also include creating test cases, testing procedures, and even self-healing of failed tests.
How Americans use social media
How popular is social media with Americans? Very.
More than 8 in 10 Americans (83%) say they’ve used YouTube, finds a recent Pew Research Center survey of over 5,730 U.S. adults.
Nearly 7 in 10 adults (68%) report they use Facebook, the survey finds. And nearly half (47%) say they use Instagram.
Other social media sites are less popular, but still are used by about quarter to a third of U.S. adults, Pew says. These sites include LinkedIn, Pinterest, Reddit, TikTok, WhatsApp and X.
The fastest-growing social site among U.S. adults? That would be TikTok. In 2021, only about one in five Americans (21%) told Pew they were using the video site. Today that’s up to one in three (33%).
Age matters, too. While only 15% of those 65 and over use Instagram, the site is used by 78% of those aged 18 to 29, Pew finds.
Similarly, while 65% of Americans under the age of 30 use Snapchat, among those over 65, Snapchat is used by just 4%.