"We've been in a deep IT spending freeze and that just couldn't continue. There is pent-up demand for hardware, software and services that has to be met," says Farrar, who is based in Chicago.

Its recent study, "IT Spending Catches Fire," updates an earlier report predicting the future of corporate spending on equipment, software and labor. In the spring, Maven Wave said it expected its IT Investment Index to increase between 15% and 20% from its Q3 2009 low, to an all-time high by the end of 2012. The actual numbers for the first quarter of 2011 are in, and they indicate the index rose just over 14%, already outpacing predictions.

Within this index, derived from sales of bellwether technology firms, are callouts for hardware and software spending. While software surpassed projections by 2%, hardware sales as actual results outperformed estimates by more than 9%, according to the report. [Read .]

Farrar is not surprised by hardware's showing, as that is the first thing that has to be purchased. He expects software to pick up going forward, as it will be IT's next focus.

Spending was originally crushed, according to Farrar, in response to the credit crisis. But he concludes that beyond a possible slight blip as the U.S. awaits a decision from Congress about the federal debt ceiling, all systems will be go from next quarter on and CFOs have to be ready.