Server hardware, network infrastructure and storage upgrades are hardest hit; 97% of security upgrades are on course; nearly 40% of companies report their migrations will proceed on schedule.
BOSTON, MA (February 2, 2009) — Information Technology Intelligence Corporation (ITIC), a high-tech research and consulting firm, today announced that the global economic downturn will force 35% of corporations to delay or abandon crucial network upgrades during 2009.
The latest joint survey conducted by ITIC and Sunbelt Software polled over 700 C-level executives and IT managers at 700 corporations worldwide. The results showed that budgetary constraints and IT staffing issues topped users’ list of most daunting business challenges in the year ahead. The corporate respondents indicated they are understandably cautious about spending their precious capital expenditure monies and are only committing to crucial upgrades on an “as needed” basis.
Among the key survey findings:
- Over one-third of the corporate respondents — 35% — said that the ongoing economic downturn had caused their companies to delay or abandon planned software, hardware and network infrastructure upgrades. However, an additional 26% of those polled — over one-quarter of companies — indicated they may yet be forced to shelve crucial migration plans due to lack of funds and a dearth of trained IT staff.
- Of the 35% of companies that indicated they will delay or abandon certain planned upgrades — the network projects that will be most impacted are: server hardware (21%) and network infrastructure products such as routers (19%) and storage devices (15%).
- Security remains the sole market segment that appears to be immune to the global economic downturn. An overwhelming 97% majority of the survey respondents said their security upgrades will proceed as planned, with only a very small 3% minority indicating they will defer security upgrades.
- Overall, 39% of the survey respondents — nearly two out of five businesses — reported that their network migration and upgrade plans will proceed as planned in calendar 2009.
- Some 27% of companies — or about three out of 10 businesses — reported their 2009 IT budgets will decrease; another 32% said their budgets will remain the same as 2008. Only 16% of the survey respondents reported their IT budgets will increase during the next 12 months.
- Of the 16% of corporations that said budgets will increase — the largest portion — 23% said the budget increases would be modest — ranging from 5% to 15%. 8% reported their IT budgets would rise minimally — 1% to 5%. Large budget increases will be a rarity in 2009: only 1% of companies will see budgets go up by 20% to 30%, and 3% will see IT budgets increase by more than 30%.
Survey Methodology and Background
The Web-based survey included multiple choice and essay responses. In addition, ITIC and Sunbelt conducted two dozen first person customer interviews to validate the survey responses. ITIC and Sunbelt received no vendor sponsorship for this research and none of the survey respondents received any remuneration for their participation. Approximately 85% of the respondents came from North America; the remaining 15% came from 20 countries including Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and South America.
About Information Technology Intelligence Corporation (ITIC)
ITIC, founded in 2002, is a research and consulting firm in suburban Boston. It provides primary research on a wide variety of technology topics for vendors and enterprises. ITIC’s mission is to help its clients make sense of the technology and business events and provide tactical, practical and actionable advice. For more information visit ITIC’s website at https://itic-corp.com.
About Sunbelt Software
Sunbelt Software was founded in 1994 and is a leading provider of Windows security and management software with product solutions in the areas of antispam and antivirus, antispyware, and vulnerability assessment. Leading products include the CounterSpy and VIPRE product lines. For more information, visit the company’s website at http://sunbeltsoftware.com.