Indian IT infra spending to see tepid growth this year: Gartner

Total spending is estimated at $2.2 billion against last year's $2.17 billion

Spending on information technology (IT) infrastructure by Indian organisations and businesses is expected to see only sluggish growth this year, says research entity Gartner.

Total spending — including on traditional technology services such as server, storage and enterprise networking equipment — is estimated to reach $2.2 billion (Rs 14,500 crore) in the country, it said. This means 1.5 per cent growth over last year's $2.17 billion. It was $1.9 billion in 2015.

"Digital transformation is bringing in new sets of challenges and opportunities for Indian (IT) infrastructure leaders," said Naveen Mishra, research director at Gartner. The report suggests Indian traditional IT service providers should align themselves with the imperatives of the digital world and technology transformation.

"Modern, lean, agile and secure infrastructure is the business need," added Mishra

It says cloud computing is expected to become pervasive as an infrastructure layer, given its elasticity. This creates a need for IT leaders to plan for managing various cloud options. And, enterprise networking is likely to emerge as the biggest segment in the Indian IT infrastructure market, with estimated revenue worth $1.1 billion in 2017. Gartner said software-defined networking is another option being evaluated at organisations.

Storage investment is likely to see a marginal increase to $352 million in revenues, primarily driven by technology alternatives such as software-defined storage and flash-based storage, said Mishra.