Chief information officers must be prepared to source their IT from offshore global locations or suffer competitive disadvantage, as emerging markets ramp up their technology investments, according to analyst firm Gartner.

Speaking at the firm's Emerging Trends Symposium in Barcelona, Gartner vice president Partha Iyengar predicted that the industry will witness a "borderless state" by 2015, with organisations sourcing their software, hardware, telecoms, IT services and people from all over the world.

A key driver in this trend is set to be emerging markets, where the amount spent on IT will be twice that of mature markets, when calculated as a percentage of GDP.

“Organisations must learn to trade and compete with these rapidly transforming, highly organised companies, which leverage low-cost, highly skilled labour sources," said Iyegar in a statement. "If they do not, they will be at a significant competitive disadvantage."