ZDNet study: Renewed interest in enterprise portals

In our latest IT Priorities survey, ZDNet Research found that enterprise portals are back in the spotlight as organizations with 500 or more employees plan for deployments in the short-term and 12-months out. ERP, Intrusion detection, VoIP, and infrastructure consolidation are also high on the priority list. Renewed interest in thin clients for plans two-years out was also observed.

The demand for enterprise portalsappears strong as companiesadopt them to provide aflexible means for access to a myriad applicationsthat aid employees seeking information andprovide content management (among many other things).

At the category level, not much has changed form the previous month's results apart from security and hardware upgrades swapping their rankings.

March IT Priorities of large organizations

• Wired and wireless networking projects are the number one ongoing initiative. IT managers are keeping up with maturing standards and solutions for wireless and IP telephony deployment.
• Software infrastructure comes in at second place as companies update their ERP applications and stay focused on the changing world of directory services where general-purpose platforms are moving to specialized directories that interoperate with each other across the enterprise.
• Hardware upgrades weighs in as the number three top priority as organizations continue to consolidate their IT infrastructure.
• At number four is security, a continuous concern for businesses as they deal with cyber threats, in particular, spyware.
• Web technology keeps its ranking at number five with high interest in portals and Web services.
• IT management is firmly anchored at number six, as IT managers grapple with regulatory issues while keeping costs under control.
• Data management is the next priority as companies work to get the most intelligence out of their data warehouses.
• OS migration is the eight priority with IT organizations preparing for next versions and updates of Windows XP, including preparations for Longhorn.
• The final priority, application development, rounds out the list according to our data as companies reap the benefits of integration.