IT spend to grow next year

To quote an acquaintance who is a 30+ year  journeyman in IT management, “the last year wasn’t just the worst I’ve ever seen, it was Armageddon”. From that perspective any improvement no matter how meager is a welcome trend

As one might expect, the outlook for 2010 appears upbeat only in comparison to an anxiety-filled 2009. To assess the current state of affairs, we first asked IT executives in our November survey of 139 organizations in the U.S. and Canada whether their companies made any changes to their IT operational budgets over the past three months. As Figure 1 shows, the answer for nearly half of the organizations was “Yes.” While 19% increased their IT budgets, 29% continued to squeeze costs out of their spending plans as they approached the end of the year.

This is a bearish outcome. At best, it is more upbeat than responses to the same question at this time a year ago, when 35% were reducing budgets and only 11% were increasing spending plans. At that point, however, business leaders were worrying about the possibility of a global financial meltdown. This year, IT organizations are continuing to restrain spending as they approach year-end. Despite this, many of those same organizations anticipate a green light to raise spending in the year ahead. (Internet News)

This is good news for those of us who have earned our keep in IT, and great news for Tightwads too. With a little new investment, we’ll see more recycled gear on the market.