Gartner: IT spending will strengthen in 2009

IT spending in infrastructure and operations projects across Australia are expected to remain healthy in 2009 according to new research by Gartner.

According to the research firm, IT projects remain a priority amongst most Australian companies, including virtualisation and green IT projects. But despite this, a quarter of companies surveyed reported that they had cancelled IT projects due to the global financial crisis.

“IT infrastructure remains the biggest area for IT spending within Australian organisations and it also represents the biggest opportunity to drive operational efficiencies and minimise costs,” Gartner managing vice president Matthew Boon said.

The survey showed that IT hardware investments, such as client computing, printing devices, storage and servers, is expected to stay the same.

Virtualisation technology is expected to increase technology as 50 per cent of companies surveyed anticipate an increase in spending, with another 41 percent anticipating it will remain the same.

“It’s clear that technologies like virtualisation can help companies stay ahead of the curve amidst the doom the gloom and help position businesses to take advantage of the upturn when it finally comes,” Boon said.

Gartner’s research predicts good news for the environment, as 38 per cent of companies reported an expected increase in green IT, and 50 per cent expect spending to remain the same. Also, 95 per cent of respondents reported an expected investment increase in server consolidation.

“It’s also good to see that green IT projects are not being shelved due to the downturn. These kinds of projects are win-win investments as they drive both operational efficiency and reduce power consumption as well as reducing overall carbon footprints.”

Other technology investments that are expected to attract increased spending this year according to Gartner are audio, video and web conferencing (49 percent), collaboration tools (45 percent) and VoIP (44 percent).

Only 11 percent of respondents expected to increase spending on cloud computing, which Gartner attributes to a lack of understanding surrounding the technology.

Gartner surveyed 102 Australian companies as part of a global survey about the impact of the economic downturn on technology decisions during February and March this year.

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