Johannesburg — THE information and technology (IT) industry is expected to make a strong rebound, with the value of the sector expected to reach 3,4-trillion by next year, according to Peter Sondergaard, the head of Gartner global research.

Speaking at a three-day Gartner symposium in Cape Town on Monday, Mr Sondergaard said the IT industry was one of the hardest hit sectors during the economic meltdown as clients cut back their spending on technology.

"Last year was the worst year for the IT industry. But there will be a substantial rebound this year," Mr Sondergaard said.

However, he warned that the recovery does not mean the industry will return to where it was.

"It is no longer the cyclic spending recovery the industry has seen in the past. Rather, the industry has taken a massive hit and won't be the same again," he said. The growth is likely to come from developing economies in Africa and Asia.

Mr Sondergaard said Africa is showing signs of recovery, with technology expected to play an important role in this recovery.

He said the traditional way of viewing technology is changing as company CEOs look to technology to contribute to revenue.

This means chief technology officers will have to start engaging in revenue-generating initiatives and this will open up a vast array of new career opportunities for technology professionals.

"CEOs are skittish about money since the recession," he said.

At the conference, companies were urged to embrace new trends in IT such as cloud computing, which is the use of the internet to provide technology services including software and hardware, but from a remote location rather than from the client's premises.

International and local technology companies are moving towards cloud computing, an industry which Gartner estimates will grow from 58,6bn to more than 148,8bn in 2014.

Mr Sondergaard predicted that companies will invest 112bn in cloud-computing services over the next five years.

By using cloud computing, clients do not have to own the infrastructure but can share technologies. Moreover, companies can pay only for what is needed and used.

"Cloud computing provides a shift from technology use to value consumption," said Daryl Plummer, the managing vice-president at US-headquartered Gartner.

He said a move to cloud computing is inevitable but companies are still concerned about safety and security. Another main concern is the loss of data as clients' information will be managed remotely and is outside their direct control.

Mr Plummer said chief information officers should manage the risk of adopting cloud-computing services as the cloud-computing trend is gaining momentum.