As networks stabilize, attention turns to building up the infrastructure

Our researchshows that the proportion of IT resources allocated for network infrastructure is rising, revealing a big shift away from administration projects. The key "other" or miscellaneous networking technologies thatIT budgets are focused oninclude: Gigabit Ethernets, WANs, RFID, Fiber optics, and LANs.

The "other"group in our IT Priorities data set is the catch-all for the less sexy components of networking but reminds us that networks are the backbone of IT and that networking isn'talways about going wireless or deploying net phones.

So what is going on with network administration?A closer look at the data showsthat the swingis primarily due to spending less on consolidation and integration, andmodest scale backs in certain network management tasks. We surmise that this downturn reflects the trend toward automatingthe routine facets of network maintenance and monitoring.