Generally, the main large-scale segments the IT industry can be split into are IT hardware, software and IT services. The latter is predictably in demand across industries and sectors, on municipal, regional and national levels, generating 41.4 billion euros in revenue in 2021. That same year, around one million employees worked in IT services and software. Worldwide, spending on IT services is expected to increase significantly. These services cover a wide range of areas centered around system implementation, IT support, maintenance, cybercrime prevention - nowadays standard requirements both for the private and public sectors, therefore ensuring a constant demand for IT specialists. While most businesses aim to hire for and build their own in-house IT department, there are also German companies specializing in IT consulting and system integration.
An increasingly indispensable part of IT services and business activity worldwide is cloud computing. Clouds are networks located on remote servers which are accessibl online. These networks are used for data storage, management and processing, which obviously creates enormous flexibility for both private and business users on one hand, and provides additional online security challenges on the other. German companies used a variety of cloud computing services. In terms of usage, rates increased noticeably in recent years, amounting to 82 percent in 2020.
The German IT industry both imports and exports hardware. The majority of hardware imports to Germany originate from China.
