Mumbai, Nov 16 (IANS): Driven by software and IT services revenue growth, IT spending in the country will reach $72.4 billion in 2017 -- up 6.9 per cent from 2016, a new report said on Wednesday.

The key vertical segments driving IT spending growth include the communications, media and services, banking and securities, manufacturing and utilities markets, noted market research firm Gartner.

"Software and IT services spending is projected to have the highest growth rates as companies work towards creating digital applications on which enterprise organisations' digital business models are being built," said Partha Iyengar, Gartner Fellow and Head of Research, Gartner India, in a statement. 

Software spending is projected to grow 7.3 per cent in 2016 and it will grow another 12.8 per cent in 2017 to reach $5 billion.

IT services spending is on pace to grow 8.5 per cent in 2016 to reach $11 billion, and will increase 13.5 per cent in 2017 to reach $12.5 billion, the findings showed.

CIOs will participate in the building of a new digital platform with intelligence at the centre, the report added. 

The new digital platform consists of five domains -- traditional IT systems, customer experience, Internet of Things (IoT), an ecosystem foundation and the intelligence platform that ties all the domains together.