Worldwide enterprise software revenue will surpass $232bn in 2010, a 4.5 per cent increase on 2009’s revenue, says Gartner.

The software market is also projected for continued growth in 2011, with revenue forecast to hit $246.6bn, and $297bn through 2014.

Joanne Correia, managing vice president at Gartner, said: “After declining 2.6 per cent in 2009, the worldwide market for enterprise software is recovering well with signs of continuing growth on the horizon. Ageing systems, as well as greater demand for security and aligning software with business requirements, are key decision factors for end users increasing their spending within the infrastructure software market.”

“These earnings were driven primarily by pent-up software demand, and with that demand having been mostly satisfied, somewhat slower growth is expected for the latter half of 2010,” explained Colleen Graham, research director at Gartner. “A loss of momentum and general economic weakness will drive some organisations to exercise caution in end-of-user software purchases. However, despite these challenges, key markets such as virtualisation, operating systems and security are expected to finish the year with double-digit growth.”

The EMEA region is forecast to see a fall in enterprise software spending this year, with 2010 revenue estimated at $64.5bn. This is a 3.4 per cent decline on 200’s revenue.

Eastern Europe, however, is providing to be a highly volatile region with a boom and bust tendency, which Gartner said can bring huge gains to companies that invest during good years, but great pain in recession years.

“The story in Western Europe at the moment is the duality of the situation with Germany leading the rebound, France following behind, and the UK and the Nordic countries showing promising prospects, while Ireland, Spain, Portugal and Greece are still struggling with weak performances,” commented Fabrizio Biscotti, research director in Gartner Europe. “This is leading to a ‘polarisation’ of performances in the software market, with the countries that are leading the recovery being more proactive on the software purchase front while those that are still languishing in recession are missing out on the more innovative software purchase front while those that are still languishing in recession are missing out on the more innovative software investments. By 2011 this could lead to an even larger gap between the size and growth rates of the software markets in these countries.”

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