Gartner is predicting that worldwide IT spending will hit $3.4 Trillion (that is trillion) in 2008 which is up eight percent over 2007.Gartner provided the following spending chart:

Table 1
Worldwide End-User Spending (Billions of Dollars)

2007
2008
2009

Computing Hardware
382
408
423

Annual Growth (%)
10
7
4

Software
178
196
211

Annual Growth (%)
13
10
8

IT Services
748
819
872

Annual Growth (%)
10
10
7

Telecom
1,843
1,983
2,093

Annual Growth (%)
10
8
6

Total
3,151
3,406
3,600

Annual Growth (%)
11
8
6

Just read it down, I know the chart didn't come out all that great as it was moved to the blog.
The big news here is that while the U.S. banks, housing industry and auto industry seem to be falling behind big time, Gartner is saying the IT industry is continuing to move along as more IT execs move to contracts and services over straight purchases. Gartner is also saying the U.S. is in the middle of a software upgrade cycle.

If this is all true, that would be quite an accomplishment. Banks, real estate and auto are some of the strongest IT buyers and I can't see them too actively involved this year. On the other hand, a recent conversation I had with someone who has been out talking to lots of IT folks reminded me that some projects keep moving along. He was talking about projects involving document and image management. Sometimes in all the excitement about Twitter and other social nets, we forget that good old plodding corporate IT is not a bad place to find refuge in a downturn. Just as the vendors on the other side of that $3.4 trillion.