Cloud computing initiatives are the most important project for the majority of IT departments today (16%) and are expected to cause the most disruption in the future. IDG predicts the majority of cloud computing’s disruption will be focused on improving service and generating new revenue streams.
IT spending for security technologies will increase 46% in 2015, with cloud computing increasing 42% and business analytics investments up 38%
The goal of the study was to determine IT priorities for 2015 in areas such as spending, staffing and technology. Computerworld spoke with 194 respondents, 55% of which are from the executive IT roles. 19% from mid-level IT, 16% in IT professional roles and 7% in business management.
Additional key take-aways from the study include:
- Enterprises are predicting they will increase their spending on security technologies by 46%, cloud computing by 42% with the greatest growth in enterprises with over 1,000 employees (52%), 38% in business analytics, 36% for storage solutions and 35% for wireless & mobile.
The following graphic provides an overview of the top five tech spending increases in 2015:
- In 2015 IT will take on an increasingly important role growing revenue, profitability, enhancing competitiveness and getting to know customers. Of these, growing revenue is predicted to be where IT senior management leads line-of-business leaders.
The following graphic provides a comparison of the business priorities for the IT department in the next 12 months:
- Business analytics is most relied on for the insights gained in generating new revenue streams and increasing sales within existing channels. The study found the following intersection of the most important technology projects versus primary business goals. Maintaining and improving expected service levels emerges as the single most important overall objective from the study.
- Cloud computing initiatives are the single most important initiative today in 16% of the IT departments surveyed, followed by legacy systems modernization and replacement (12%) and software on-premises (9%).
The following graphic shows what the single most important technology projects are that IT departments are working on right now.
Next year will definitely be the tipping point for Cloud solutions, and the adoption level for cloud computing will rise within the SME‘s businesses all around the globe.
Source: Computerworld Forecast Study for 2015
