News
IDC: IT Budgets Down in 2008
IT execs are focusing on cutting costs rather than investing in technology this quarter, according to a report by research analysts at IDC.
Information technology executives are focusing on cutting costs rather than
investing in technology this quarter, according to a report released today by
research analysts at IDC.
IDC conducted in-depth interviews with 27 U.S.-based chief technology officers
and other "senior" IT executives, and found "a significant shift
towards cost reduction...as a response to the economic downturn," according
to a released statement from Henry Morris, senior vice president of Software
and Services Research at IDC.
According to a summary of the study, more than half of the executives interviewed
said that their IT budgets had already been "negatively impacted"
by the current economic downturn, with the rest "expecting a negative future
impact." More than two-thirds also said that their funding is"moving
back to being more centralized...in part for better control and efficiency."
To help control costs, IDC said that many of the executives interviewed are
turning to technologies like virtualization and "application consolidation."
According to the summary, 25 of the 27 IT executives interviewed are also focused
on modernizing their company's legacy applications and architectures.
And while the executives interviewed said they are in need of Java, .NET, VoIP
and SAP skills, as well as security and project management expertise, they are
"very open to acquiring these skills externally."
A complete copy of the survey is available from IDC here.
About the Author
Becky Nagel is vice president of AI for 1105 Media, where she specializes in training internal and external customers on maximizing their business potential via a wide variety of generative AI technologies as well as developing cutting-edge AI content and events. She's the author of "ChatGPT Prompt 101 Guide for Business Uses," regularly leads research studies on generative AI business usage, and serves as the director of AI Boardroom, a new resource for C-level executives looking to excel in the AI era. Prior to her current position she was a technical leader for 1105 Media's Web, advertising and production teams as well as editorial director for a suite of enterprise technology publications, including serving as founding editor of PureAI.com. She has 20 years of enterprise technology journalism experience, and regularly speaks and writes about generative AI, AI, edge computing and other cutting-edge technologies. She can be reached at [email protected].