IT hiring in major Western markets will come predominantly from Asian-headquartered companies enjoying double-digit growth.

“An increasing number of successful Asian companies — particularly from China and India — are enjoying double-digit growth rates and will substantially grow their geographic footprints, making significant investments in major Western markets through 2015," says Peter Sondergaard, senior vice president Gartner.

"Consequently, these organisations will be responsible for major hiring of IT professionals to support their growth at a time when Western companies will still be coping with the impact of the economic crisis."

By 2015, Gartner predicts 4.4 million IT jobs globally will be created to support big data, with 960,000 coming from the Asia Pacific region.

Every big data-related role in Asia Pacific will create employment for three people outside of IT according to the research company, totaling an eventual four million jobs across the region.

But Gartner warns only a third of the IT roles will be filled due to lack of skills in big data, meaning overnments and organisations will need to focus on education and skills development to remain competitive.

Sondergaard said the IT industry is entering a ‘nexus of forces’, which includes a confluence and integration of cloud, social collaboration, mobile and information.

“This is a time of accelerating change, where your current IT architecture will be rendered obsolete,” he said.

“You must lead through this change, selectively destroy low impact systems, and aggressively change your IT cost structure.

"This is the next age of computing.”