Gens added that this restructuring will not only create new markets and opportunities but will also change nearly every assumption about who the industry's leaders will be and how they establish and maintain leadership.

Hardware spending will remain strong in 2011 but IDC says the industry will depend to a larger extent on improvements in software spending and related project-based services spending.

The global IT spending will also benefit from the accelerated recovery in emerging markets. IDC predicts that this market will generate more than half of all net new IT spending worldwide next year.

In 2011, spending on public IT cloud services will grow at more than five times the rate of the IT industry representing an increase of 30 per cent from 2010. Small and medium-sized business cloud use will also increase next year and a more nascent private cloud model will continue to evolve as infrastructure, software, and service providers collaborate on a range of new offerings and solutions.