Indian CIOs Will Spend More on IT: Survey
Although IT budgets are shrinking in most parts of the world, Indian
CIOs plan to spend 5.52% more in 2009, according to a CIO survey carried
out by research firm Gartner. The budget increase in the current year is
however lower than the 13% increase reported in 2008.
The
worldwide survey of 1,527 CIOs was conducted by Gartner Executive
Programs (EXP) from Sep. 15 to Dec. 15, 2008 and represents CIO budget
plans reported at that time. Flat IT budgets were found across
enterprises in North America and Europe, with slight increases in Latin
America and a slight decrease in Asia/Pacific.
Another
HP-commissioned global survey reveals
that 84% of technology organizations are planning to implement a data
center transformation project in the next 12 months, primarily to lower
costs and reduce business risk. Majority of technology decision makers
are currently implementing or planning to implement in 2009
consolidation (95%), business continuity (93%) and virtualization (91%)
projects, the survey results tell.
Research firm IDC has expressed its concerns over slow IT spending. It
says worldwide spending on information technology will slow
significantly in 2009 because of the financial crisis that began in
September 2008. But it’ll still witness growth. According to
revised forecast from IDC, spending
will grow 2.6% year over year in 2009, down from its pre-crisis forecast
of 5.9% growth.
In
October last year, Gartner had said that despite economic slowdown,
worldwide
IT spending will exceed $3.4 trillion in 2008,
an increase of 8% from 2007. Growth is largely based on the decline in
the U.S. dollar.
“In the
current economy, enterprise cost optimization has become the most
critical factor for the CIO,” believes Partha Iyengar, head of research
in India at Gartner.
The
Gartner EXP CIO report "Meeting the Challenge: The 2009 CIO Agenda"
represents the business priorities and CIO strategies. The CIOs
surveyed, says Gartner, represent more than $138 billion in corporate
and public-sector IT spending, encompassing 1,527 enterprises across 48
countries and 30 industries.
The
survey shows that
CIOs in India have shifted their focus from investing
in emerging technologies to increasing the return on their existing
investments and infrastructure.
It’s
expected that Indian CIOs will mainly invest in business intelligence
applications, ERP technologies, and server and storage technologies.
Gartner
India CIO Summit 2009, to be held in Mumbai on March 2-3, 2009,
is supposed to discuss various technology deployment issues.
