Virtualisation, datacentre projects top CIO wishlist
Three-quarters of CIOs expect to increase IT spending in 2013, according to a survey.
In the poll of 400 CIOs in France, Germany, the United Arab Emirates, Poland and the UK, tech chiefs were asked to pick their top five spending priorities over the next year.
The top spending priorities listed were:
- Server virtualisation
- Datacentre consolidation
- Storage consolidation
- Desk-top virtualisation
- Server upgrades
According to the survey, commissioned by application performance company Riverbed Technology, ten percent of respondents said they plan to make "aggressive investments" to improve their company's competitiveness, while 28 percent said that cuts to overall spend are key drivers for the tech investments they will make in the next 12 months.
One in three CIOs said they will approach IT investment 'cautiously' in 2013, while an unlucky nine percent said they would be spending less over the next 12 months.
As the economic outlook — particularly in Europe — remains uncertain, it remains hard to predict levels of IT spending this year.
In January, TechRepublic's CIO Jury found that tech chiefs expect 2013 to be a better year for the IT department than 2012, as companies begin to invest again for growth after a long period of restraint, with cloud and big data areas of particular interest. A larger survey by Gartner suggested that the average IT budget is likely to decline slightly, by 0.5 percent, this year - while another suggests enterprise IT spending will rise by 6.4 percent in 2013.