According to IDC’s Semiannual Report on Enterprise Infrastructure: Workloads, workloads related to structured databases and data management led enterprise computing and storage infrastructure spending during the second half of 2023. Organizations spent $7.2 billion on hardware infrastructure for these applications, accounting for 7.8% of total enterprise IT infrastructure spending.
Despite this high level of investment, spending on structured databases and data management decreased by 1.3% compared to the same period in 2022. The fastest-growing segment was industry-specific enterprise applications, with an annual increase of 36.6%. Workloads related to the AI lifecycle grew by 26.6%, reaching a total of $6.6 billion, making them the second most important workload in terms of investment.
Client computing spending experienced a strong recovery, with a 22.6% growth compared to the same half of 2022. Other areas that saw double-digit growth include tool and application development, text and media analytics, business intelligence/data analytics, and technical workloads.
Investment priorities varied by region. In the Americas, AI workloads led the market with $3.1 billion in the second half of 2023. In Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan and China), China, and EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa), structured databases and data management workloads received the most investment.
In terms of product categories, AI-specific workloads led spending on OEM servers, with $3.9 billion, while digital services for consumers drove spending on direct ODM infrastructure, with $2.8 billion.
Looking ahead, infrastructure spending for shared and dedicated cloud workload environments is expected to continue growing at a double-digit rate over the next five years. According to IDC forecasts, investments in cloud and shared environment infrastructure will grow at a compound annual rate of 12.8%, led by digital services and the AI lifecycle.
By 2028, AI spending is expected to reach $11.6 billion in shared environments and $4.9 billion in dedicated environments. Additionally, investments in native cloud workloads will grow much faster (14.0% CAGR) than traditional workloads, although the latter will still represent 67% of total spending in 2028.
While spending on structured database and data management workloads leads the market, the rapid expansion of AI and digitalization presents an opportunity for organizations to continue growing. IDC predicts that the focus on AI and unstructured data in the coming years will change the market dynamics, requiring strategic planning to capitalize on growth in these emerging segments.