Industry news

IT budgets to remain steady

IT budgets worldwide appear to have been unaffected by ongoing financial instability, new research suggests.

Analysts say that global enterprise IT budget growth remains the same at 3.3 per cent.

The figures come from a worldwide survey of over 1,000 chief information officers (CIOs) by Gartner.

From those that did report a decline, the data reveals that the average figure stood at ten per cent while the average growth was 15 per cent.

Mark McDonald, vice-president and head of research for Gartner executive programmes, said the research indicates that IT budgets are not the "target rich" environment for cost-cutting that they had been in the past.

"Historically, the revised numbers are in keeping with the past four years where IT budget increases have averaged 2.4 per cent.

"We are seeing caution rather wholesale cutting. This is due to CIOs increasing diligence in managing IT spending over the past few years."

Last year, Gartner said that CIOs should have two separate IT budgets for 2008 due to the current uncertain economic climate.