In order to assess IT data center priorities over the next 12-18 months, ESG recently surveyed 515 North American and Western European senior IT professionals representing midmarket (100 to 999 employees) and enterprise-class (1,000 employees or more) organizations. All respondents were personally responsible for or familiar with their organization’s 2009 IT spending as well as their 2010 IT budget and spending plans at either an entire organization level or at a business unit/division/branch level. The survey was designed to answer the following questions:

• What business imperatives are currently having the greatest impact on IT spending?
• What are organizations’ general spending plans for IT products and services in 2010 and beyond?
• How do spending plans vary by organization size, geographic region, industry, and other variables?
• What is driving the changes between 2009 spending and 2010 planned spending?
• Which IT initiatives do organizations feel are least likely to be impacted by current or future IT budget reductions? Conversely, which initiatives are most likely to be cut from IT’s wish list?
• Within specific technology segments—such as servers, storage, networking, security, and information management—which initiatives and technologies within those segments will sustain investment?
• What factors will be most important in justifying IT investments to the business over the next 12-18 months?
• What is the relationship between current and future IT spending and an organization’s overall purchasing pattern for IT products and services?
• What is the relationship between current and future IT spending and an organization’s overall tolerance for business risk?

Survey participants represented a wide range of industries including manufacturing, financial services, communications and media, health care, retail, government, and business services.

For more information on the contents and findings of this report, please download the executive summary below.

ESG Research Report 2010 IT Spending Intentions Executive Summary