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New methodology changes up ZDNet's IT priorities rankings

January’s IT Priorities survey results show that software infrastructure is the no. 1 top priority followed by hardware upgrades and IT management.
Written by Natalie Gagliordi, Contributor

January’s IT Priorities survey results show that software infrastructure is the no. 1 top priority followed by hardware upgrades and IT management. Rounding out the top 5 are wired and wireless and data management, according to our approximately 500 respondents who take our survey each month.

(I'f you've been following our monthly reports over the years you'll notice the big change in the rankings this month, and it's because of a change we've made to our methodology explained later in this post.)

A look some of the trending data shows that software infrastructure projects averaged 24% of IT spending in the last 12 months.  That quarter of IT spend was mainly directed at ERP projects (27%), while directory services projects rang up 23% of spending, and CRM solutions 13%.  Spending for ERP solutions is expected to dip to an average of 24% over the next 12 months, with directory services spending to increase to an average of 18% for the coming year, and CRM spending is expected to remain the same.

Over the last 12 months, hardware upgrades accounted for roughly 17% of the IT budget, with server projects averaging nearly half of all hardware spending in the last 12 months, with 17% of spending on storage projects.  The 12-month outlook for server solutions shows a slight decrease to 44% of hardware spending, while spending on storage projects is expected to rise to an average of 24% for the coming year.

In the world of wired and wireless, IT managers budgeted about 15% of spending to networking solutions in the last 12 months, of which VoIP projects averaged 28%. Spending for VoIP solutions is expected to increase slightly over the next 12 months, reaching an average of 30% for the coming year.

Over in security, initiatives to counter cyber threats averaged 34% of security spending in the last 12 months; authentication/encryption spending over the last 12 months averaged 18% of security spending. Spending for cyber threat solutions is expected to decrease over the next 12 months, reaching an average of 23%, while authentication/encryption spending is expected to increase to an average of 24% of security spending for the coming year.

January IT Priorities

  1. Software infrastructure
  2. Hardware upgrades
  3. IT management
  4. Wired & Wireless 
  5. Data management 
  6. Web technology 
  7. Security
  8. App development & integration  
  9. OS migration

Every month since October 2002, we've been asking IT pros like you about your top IT priorities.  Over the course of the program we've made improvements to the survey, such as asking questions to better understand which vendor solutions you prefer and avoid and why. New for 2006 is the ranking system, which is now determined by what IT professionals and decision makers view important 12 months out, rather than basing it on an average of all the time frames we look at, as we did previously.


 

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