IT spending will rebound in 2010 as the industry leaves behind the worst year ever, Gartner said.

Overall global technology spending this year is on pace to fall 5.2% year-on-year, with enterprise IT purchasing alone falling 6.9%, Gartner reported. Next year, the market will improve dramatically, rising 3.3% to $3.3 trillion.

Gartner released its latest report Monday at its Symposium/ITxpo in Orlando, Fla. While the IT industry is expected to return to growth next year, the researcher warned that the market will not return 2008 revenue levels before 2012.

"2010 is about balancing the focus on cost, risk, and growth. For more than 50 percent of CIOs the IT budget will be 0 percent or less in growth terms," Gartner researcher Peter Sondergaard said in a statement. "It will only slowly improve in 2011."

The computing hardware market struggled the most this year, with spending forecast to plummet 16.5% to $317 billion. Next year, spending will be flat. Software purchases will fall 2.1% this year and grow by 4.8% in 2010.

Telecommunications spending is on pace to decline 4% this year to $1.9 billion, rising 3.2% next year. IT services, meanwhile, will total $781 billion this year, and grow 4.5% in 2010.

Organizations next year will shift IT spending from capital to operational expenditures. Concepts such as cloud services will accelerate this shift, Gartner said.

Technologies important this year and likely to continue dominating IT buyers' agendas next year include business intelligence, virtualization and social media.

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