IT Pro Survey Results

Could U.S. IT Pros Be Losing a Seat at the Strategic Table?

New study commissioned by Microsoft underscores the importance of IT innovation for business success

Of the four countries included in the study, the recession appears to make the biggest impact on IT innovation in the U.S. IT managers in Japan and the U.K. indicate they will devote 41 percent of their budgets toward innovation versus "keeping the lights on," or maintaining current systems. IT professionals in Germany plan to invest 35 percent, while their counterparts in the U.S. plan to spend only 29 percent on innovation. On average, IT professionals across all four countries say they will allocate 37 percent of their budgets to innovation in 2009. Only 22 percent of IT professionals cite giving the business a competitive edge as their current top priority.

Survey Highlights

Study conducted on behalf of Microsoft by Harris Interactive Inc.

Priorities

  • IT pros prioritize driving business efficiency (48%) above simply reducing IT costs (30%).
  • IT professionals would take advantage of an extra hour in their work day to make their systems work together more efficiently (38%) or increase the collaboration between IT and the business (31%).

Security

  • Security is the number one challenge in managing infrastructure.
  • More than half of IT professionals think IT security includes advancing overall business goals (52%) and/or increasing end-user productivity (51%).
  • Protection of customer and company data (73%) is the top security priority for IT professionals over the next 1 to 3 years.

Green

84% of IT managers consider green factors when making decisions about data centers, but green plays into the final decision for only 44%.

Innovation

  • 55% indicate that the economy has changed the role of IT in their organization.
  • 51% say that budget cuts are the biggest barrier to innovation.
  • In 2009 IT pros across all four countries will allocate 37% of their budget to innovation and 63% toward "keeping the lights on."
    • US: 29% toward innovation, 71% toward "keeping the lights on."
    • UK: 41% toward innovation, 59% toward "keeping the lights on."
    • Japan: 41% toward innovation, 59% toward "keeping the lights on."
    • Germany: 35% toward innovation, 65% toward "keeping the lights on."
  • 22% say giving the business a competitive edge is their top priority.

One-third of organizations (33%) plan to transform their application environment away from a traditional, client-server model to more reliance on virtualization and cloud computing over the next two years.

Infrastructure

  • 98% will generally maintain or increase their planned investment in infrastructure technologies
  • Nearly 2/3 see the current economy as an opportunity for more investment in 1 or more techs.
  • 42% plan increased investment in virtualization.
  • 36% plan increased investment in security.
  • 24% plan increased investment in systems management.
  • 16% plan increased investment in cloud computing.

Country vs Country

  • In general, IT perceptions and behavior do not differ significantly between countries, but there are a few exceptions.
  • IT professionals in Japan are generally more cautious in their responses, particularly with regard to questions involving he impact of the current economy, possibly because they’ve experienced severe economic recession before.
    • More likely to prioritize IT cost reduction (above business efficiency or competitive advantage).
    • More likely to say the primary role of IT in the organization today is to drive cost efficiency, and significantly less likely to see IT’s role as providing a competitive advantage to the business.
  • 15% of UK companies consider green a “major factor” in data center decisions, versus Japan (6%), Germany (8%) and the US (9%).
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