The Computer Weekly and TechTarget IT Priorities Survey 2012 ...docs.media.bitpipe.com/io_10x/io_102267/item_563223/prem_IT_Pri… · Microsoft’s decision to end support for the

The Computer Weekly and TechTarget IT Priorities Survey 2012

The Results

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research from ComputerWeekly and TechTarget

1.0 Introduction

The prospects for the UK’s IT departments are looking positive despite the downturn as organisations turn to IT to help their businesses grow.

Computer Weekly/TechTarget’s global IT priorities survey reveals that in the UK, while overall spending remains flat, nearly 40% of UK businesses plan to step up their IT spending in 2012. For these businesses, IT offers a route to growth at a time of difficult market conditions. They are using technology to find ways to reach new customers, and to build stronger relationships with the customers they already have.

They include Paul Coby, CIO of retailer John Lewis, interviewed in this report, who plans to expand his IT department this year with up to 50 new recruits. He is investing in projects to integrate John Lewis’s sales channels – online, mobile and web – so that customers have much more flexibility in the way they shop.

And at Channel 4, CIO Kevin Gallagher plans to invest in data analytics technology to help the programme makers build closer links with viewers and better understand their viewing habits.

After several years of retrenchment, it is clear that for many companies, postponing spending on IT is simply not an option.

Microsoft’s decision to end support for the Windows XP desktop operating system means that alongside business analytics and mobile computing, upgrading to Windows 7 is a priority for many organisations this year.

Prudence is still the watchword however, with around a third of UK IT professionals predicting that their budgets will decrease this year, and a fifth predicting that budgets will remain static. For some of these organisations, it may be a reflection that they have completed their major IT upgrades for now. But others, particularly those that rely on public sector funding, are looking to sweat their IT assets.

Chris Price, CIO of West Midlands Police, for instance, is looking for a private sector IT partner that will help the force use IT more effectively.

IT organisations across the board are looking to spend money prudently. Large multi-year projects are a thing of the past, as organisations look for a quick return on investment.

Server virtualisation and datacentre consolidation continue to feature high up the list of projects planned for this year, as organisations look to reduce their infrastructure costs.

Computer Weekly and TechTarget IT priorities survey 2012 - the resultsWhile spending continues to be scrutinised and crunched, corporations are recognising that continuing to sweat existing IT systems and software is no longer an option

About the surveyComputer Weekly and TechTarget asked 2,642 IT professionals and business analysts around the world for their IT forecast for 2012. Conducted in November 2011, the survey covered North America, the UK, and Asia (predominantly India, but also incorporating Australia, Indonesia and Japan). In the UK, 225 IT professionals took part in the research.

IT professionals were asked questions only about IT projects and technology that related to their particular areas of responsibility.

Contents1.0 Introduction 22.0 IT budgets - global picture 33.0 UK IT budget trends 54.0 Business priorities 65.0 IT technology initiatives 76.0 Cloud computing 87.0 Infrastructure projects 128.0 Software 139.0 Datacentre consolidation 1510.0 Storage 1611.0 Desktop projects 1912.0 Security 2013.0 Networking 2114.0 Mobile IT 2215.0 UK survey demographics 2316.0 Contributors 25

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Despite its money-saving potential, cloud computing is only just beginning to take off. Just 16% of the UK IT professionals who took part in the survey say cloud is on the cards for this year.

While it is true that UK IT has been slower to recover from the downturn than its US equivalent, there are plenty of grounds for optimism, as more organisations see IT as a business enabler that will help them find new routes to market.

2.0 IT budgets – the global picture

Worldwide, the rate of growth in IT spending has fallen slightly in 2012, following a slight uptick in 2011.

Although many companies (58%) still expect to spend more in 2012 than 2011, that percentage is down from 64% in 2011. That is still a far cry from the 34% that expected their IT budgets to increase in 2010, when the recession had IT fully in its grip.

Not surprisingly, IT managers in the UK and North America see lowered growth in 2012. IT spending in the UK and North America, in fact, will rise at only 44% and 47% of companies, respectively, compared with 69% of companies in Asia.

In both the UK and North America around 40% of respondents say they are recovering slowly from the recession versus 31% in Asia. Some 35% of Asian respondents, however, say they never suffered from the recession, compared with 23% in the UK and 19% of respondents in North America.

Recessionary effects appear to be spread fairly uniformly across small, medium and large companies, but respondents from different industries reported different pictures. Not surprisingly, for example, in North America, 40% of government respondents say their IT spending is headed down.

Spending is headed up most in the high-tech industries (for example computer manufacturing and telecommunications) and financial services (57% and 54% respectively). The healthcare and pharmaceuticals industries also made a strong showing, with spending headed up at 48% of firms.

This recession has tested the patience and challenged the vision of IT managers just as much as it has any other part of society. It’s probably fair to say that their overall sentiment is better expressed by the 40% of UK IT professionals who say they’re recovering slowly, more so than it is by either the 28% who say they are mired in recession or the 9% who say they are back to normal.

“Our current website is fantastic, but it’s 10 years old, so we need a platform that will suit us for the next decade”Paul Coby, CIO,John LewisBudgets have grown worldwide in 2012, but the rate of budget growth has fallen slightly from 2011


Graph 2a: Global IT spending is increasing

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CIO panel: IT budgetsCIOs in the public sector and charities which rely on government funding and donations from the public are facing the most severe cutbacks in their spending in the UK. They are looking to use IT innovatively to help organisations reduce their overheads.

West Midlands Police, which faces phased budget cuts of £126m, is looking to shared IT services and partnerships with suppliers to help run its IT services more efficiently. “We are looking at key opportunities where ICT can add return on investment and deliver a value proposition to the organisation,” said CIO Chris Price.

Children’s charity St Christopher’s has delayed some IT projects, following a cut in its income from local authorities. IT manager Dave Glanville, is concentrating on projects that will bring a quick return, such as server virtualisation. St Christopher’s has become more agile by focusing on shorter-term projects. “The effect on IT is that we also have to be quick and agile,” he said.

Other organisations are stepping up their spending on technology as they look for ways to boost their turnover during difficult trading conditions.

High street retailer John Lewis, which posted record sales in January, is investing in a state-of-the-art EPOS system, an updated website, and has longer-term plans for data analytics.

“We are increasing our investment in technology and we are recruiting 50 new IT partners,” CIO Paul Coby told Computer Weekly.

Channel 4 is another organisation stepping up its IT spending as it gears up for the paralympics and the launch of the YouView set top box.

Kevin Gallagher, CIO, said that investing in IT will give CH4 a competitive advantage in 2012. “We have an opportunity to get good value because other people will not be investing,” he said.


Graph 2d: Impact of the recession worldwide

The timing of the recession has had a different impact in different areas. More companies in the UK have escaped the impact of the recession than in the US. However, only 9% of the UK respondents say they are back to normal, compared with 15% in the US, and 19% worldwide

Graph 2c: IT budget growth worldwide in 2012

IT spending growth shows considerable variations worldwide. Growth is healthiest in Asia, which has largely escaped the economic downturn. North America is more bullish than the UK which is taking a more conservative approach to IT spending

Graph 2b: Global IT budget growth

Nearly 60% of organisations are planning to increase their IT budgets in 2012, with 18% planning an increase of 5% or more. Only 22% are planning to reduce their IT spending

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3.0 UK IT budget trends

3.1 IT budgets to remain flat in the UK in 2012IT spending in Europe has been hit harder by the recession than spending in the US and Asia, and taken overall, UK IT budgets will remain relatively flat in 2012.

Just under 30% of the UK IT professionals surveyed say their organisations are still struggling with the downturn, and 35% say their organisations are recovering slowly. Only 23% say their IT organisations have been unaffected by the recession. It is not surprising that 50% of IT professionals say that their IT spending will either decrease or remain the same in 2012.

3.2 IT investmentBut the picture remains uneven, with a substantial proportion of UK organisations stepping up their investment in IT, as they seek ways to grow their business in the downturn.

Some 38% of IT professionals expect their IT budgets to increase in 2012, with 21% expecting an increase of more than 5%. Many of these organisations have reached a point where they cannot postpone spending on IT any more.

Organisations that cut their IT spending deeply in 2009 now realise, particularly with support for Windows XP about to end, that they need to upgrade their infrastructure to be competitive. “I think what you are seeing now is the realisation from some IT departments that they can’t delay spending any more,” said Ovum analyst Roy Illsley, commenting on our research.

At the same time, organisations realise that investing in IT now will put them in a strong position when recovery comes. Business analytics and cloud computing, for example, offer the potential to grow in a difficult market. “Companies feel like they are already in diminishing returns from reducing costs. They have to find ways to stimulate growth,” said Dave Aron, Gartner analyst.

3.3 IT staffingIT departments are likely to become leaner in 2012, the survey suggests. Although 20% of UK IT professionals surveyed say their organisation plans to invest in IT staff, some 41% are planning to cut back staff numbers.

This may reflect the trend towards leaner IT operations, say commentators, as organisations pare back their IT operations to the core systems needed to support their business. “I think you are going to find a lot of the redundancies are in organisations that are cutting down their core IT staff, but are not necessarily cutting their IT spend,” said Illsey.


Graph 3a: Which areas will your budget increase in?

When UK companies are planning to increase spending on IT, most of the increase is going on new hardware and software, though cloud services are growing in popularity. Conversely, the survey shows that when organisations are cutting IT spending, these items are first to be cut back (118 responses)

“A lot of the redundancies are in organisations that are cutting down their core IT staff, but are not necessarily cutting their IT spend”Roy Illsey, Ovum analyst

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4.0 Business priorities

The focus for 29% of UK IT departments in 2012 will be expanding IT to support the growth of the business, with business analytics featuring strongly in many organisa-tions’ plans. Around a quarter will concentrate their spending in a few key areas of IT.

In previous years, IT managers have talked about streamlining and automating business processes to raise output. But spending on streamlining and automation has been relatively low. This year’s survey shows similarly modest levels, with 19% of UK IT organisations aiming to reduce business costs by automating business processes.

Some 13% of IT departments have the ambition of maintaining their service levels despite a flat budget, while 15% will focus on reducing their IT spending.

4.1 CommentaryThe survey results suggest that businesses recognise that IT can help their business grow despite difficult market conditions.

CIO panel: cloud computingFor cash-strapped businesses, cloud computing, particularly software-as-a-service (SaaS), is the best strategy to reduce IT costs, according to Richard Hall, an expert in company restructuring.

“Most enterprises are looking at a mixture of infrastructure-as-a-service [IaaS], blended with the existing IT, as a hybrid. But ideally, we are looking to large shifts to SaaS,” he says.

Jos Creese at Hampshire County Council also sees cloud computing as key to keeping IT costs down, and has consolidated much of the local authority’s estate already.

For others, cloud is a lower priority. West Midlands Police, for example, has a large number of legacy IT systems that would be impractical to transfer to the cloud.

“When you move from quite a heavy investment in legacy systems, you don’t change it all over night,” says CIO Chris Price.

Rob Fraser, IT director, at Sainsbury’s, also aims to keep IT out of the cloud. “The cloud is very present in the news at the moment. We do take some things as services, but when we take them we often buy the complete service,” he says.

CIOs are a lot more comfortable with cloud computing, says Dave Aron, analyst at Gartner. “Anecdotally, last year a lot of CIOs were worried that it was all hype, particularly public cloud. This year, suddenly it is all different.”


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Graph 4a: Worldwide vs. UK - IT focus for 2012

Nearly a third of UK organisations are planning to expand IT to help the business grow in 2012, as more companies see IT as a route to growing business in the downturn. Worldwide the figure is higher at 37%, reflecting greater optimism in Asia and the US (209 UK responses)

Graph 3b: IT spending plans in the UK

IT departments in the UK are taking a more cautious approach to IT spending, than those in North America and Asia. In the UK, around 38% of organisations plan to step up spending on IT in 2012, compared with nearly 60% worldwide. Similarly in the UK 33% plan to reduce their IT budgets, compared with the global average of 22% (209 responses)

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Organisations are looking to analytics and social media to help them understand their customers and to build stronger relationships with them. And they are beginning to invest in “big data” projects that will help them gain competitive advantages by understanding their company data.

However the long-term mega projects are now part of history. When the recession struck, CIOs found they could not make the cuts the business demanded because they were locked into long-term contracts with IT suppliers. Now they are choosing projects more selectively and limiting their scope to one or two years.

5.0 IT technology initiatives in 2012

5.1 Windows 7Migration from Windows XP to Windows 7 will feature prominently in the plans of IT departments this year, as Microsoft winds down support of XP. Businesses are expected to take advantage of the move to Windows 7 to replace traditional desktops with virtual desktops and virtual applications. The move will make it easier to manage the growing number of mobile and consumer devices used at work. (For more on Windows 7 turn to Section 11.)

5.2 Server virtualisationOver half of the IT professionals questioned are planning server virtualisation projects this year. Server virtualisation, which allows IT organisations to reduce the size of their datacentres by running multiple applications on a single server, is now well understood. Although the technology is mature, not every business has yet taken advantage of it. Server virtualisation is attractive because it offers a quick payback, typically within 12 or 18 months. (For more on server virtualisation turn to section 7.)

5.3 Network securityThe focus of security is shifting away from the network to protecting data. However in reality, data-centric security remains out of reach for most organisations as their information security strategy and operational readiness remain immature. Businesses are concentrating on network security to establish a baseline maturity before tackling more focused security issues.

5.4 Data protectionMedia focus on the topic is driving public awareness of data protection. At the same time, prosecutions by the Information Commissioner’s Office aredrawing the board’s attention to the risks. So it is not surprising that some 43% of UK organisations questioned say they plan to implement data protection initiatives in the coming year.

5.5 Business continuityBusiness continuity planning and disaster recovery has assumed a higher profile for many organisations following natural disasters in Japan, the Philippines, Thailand and the US in 2011. Publicity surrounding high-profile data leaks and


Graph 5a: UK IT technology initiatives 2012

Windows 7, server virtualisation, network security and data protection feature prominently in many companies’ IT plans for 2012

43% of UK organisations questioned said they plan to implement data protection initiatives in the coming year

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CIO panel: Server virtualisationDave Glanville, IT manager at St Christopher’s, says virtualisation will pay for itself rapidly by reducing energy costs, and will also make software testing easier.

“We want to be able to test stuff in a much more flexible test environment, which virtualisation will give us,” he says.

Virtualisation is key to helping supermarket Sainsbury’s meet its plans to double in size by 2020, without doubling its IT footprint, according to the supermarket’s IT director, Rob Fraser.

“With so much we want to do over the next five years, it makes sense to invest in a large virtualisation system. That gives headroom for all sorts of things we haven’t even thought about yet,” he says.

toughening regulation is also pushing business continuity to the fore. (For more on security, data protection and business continuity see section 12.)

5.6 Datacentre consolidationOver 30% of respondents are considering datacentre consolidation as one of their infrastructure projects this year. While server consolidation increases the utilisation of server hardware by allowing one physical server to host multiple virtual machine (VM) instances, datacentre consolidation helps businesses to streamline their IT infrastructure and make it more compact and cost-efficient. (For more on datacentre consolidation see Section 9.)

5.7 Business intelligence and analyticsBusinesses are investing in analytics technology to mine data, helping them grow the business and build stronger relationships with their customers, despite difficult trading conditions. Around 40% of IT professionals questioned say they are planning projects in this area in 2012. “People are looking at how they can use all the information they have got to glean the nuggets that will allow them to grow and survive in this difficult time,” said Roy Illsley at Ovum. (For more on business intelligence and analytics see Section 8.)

5.8 Mobile computingTablet PCs are gaining traction, with 30% planning to deploy tablets in their organisation during 2012. A similar proportion are planning roll-outs of smartphones. One consequence is that organisations are having to spend more to make their systems secure, with some 26% planning mobile security projects in 2012. And as they deploy mobile devices, around 17% of organisations are planning to enhance their corporate data and applications to allow them to be accessed by an increasingly mobile workforce. (For more on mobile computing see section 14.)

5.9 Other IT projects

6.0 Cloud computing

Cloud computing is more talked about than acted upon in 2012. Nevertheless, some 16% of UK IT professionals say their organisations plan to invest in private cloud this year.


Security is a strong theme throughout 2012, with identity and access management, threat and vulnerability management, and mobile security featuring in the list of projects planned for 2012

Graph 5b: UK IT technology initiatives 2012

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CIO priorities 2012: Paul Coby, CIO of John LewisHigh street retailer John Lewis has fared better than most in the recession. With sales up in January 2012 by over 8% year on year, the retailer has the luxury of being able to invest in its IT department.

Paul Coby (pictured), CIO of John Lewis, said his focus in 2012 will be to invest in IT to grow the company, and in particular to give John Lewis customers a seamless experience, whether they buy from high street shops or online. “We are increasing our investment in technology and we are recruiting 50 new IT partners,” he said in an interview to accompany the 2012 Computer Weekly/TechTarget IT priorities survey.

John Lewis technology updatesCoby has two major projects underway this year. The first is a state-of-the-art electronic point of sale system that will replace 1980’s technology. “We put that in over Christmas and New Year to test it, and it’s really done fantastically well. I am accelerating the roll-out, and it’s going to be in 12 of our stores this year,” he said.

The second project is an updated website. The company plans to replace its 10-year-old technology with a platform from Oracle. “Our current website is fantastic. In terms of volumes it does fantastically well. Sales over Christmas were up 28%,” he said. “But it’s 10 years old, so we need a platform that will suit us for the next decade.” With online sales growing rapidly, Coby expects the new website to pay for itself quickly. But more importantly, it will be a stepping stone to a larger strategic vision.

Technology and business integrationCoby is working with fellow directors in John Lewis on a project to integrate the technology and business processes behind its three sales channels – in-store, the web and mobile. “At the moment, we have systems in different channels, so there is a whole set of online systems and in-store systems, and we are building mobile systems,” he said. “Our vision is to build a single order management program.” The project will make it simpler for John Lewis to manage customer orders internally, and promises to make life easier for John Lewis shoppers, giving them a wider range of options.

“Sometimes you want to go into a shop and get expert advice from one of our partners. Sometimes you might want to use one of our kiosks. Sometimes you look in a shop and you want to check out the reviews and prices, so you scan the product and get the information on it. It’s how you integrate all of that,” he said.

Coby is running a pilot to test how John Lewis partners can use tablets in stores to help customers. Assistants can use the tablets to show the complete range of products and to check what’s in stock.

Putting customers firstHe is working with the supermarket Waitrose, also part of the John Lewis group, to create a customer data warehouse that will help the organisation understand its customers’ shopping habits. The project will allow John Lewis to offer its customers a more personalised service, but Coby is very aware of the need to respect customers’ privacy. “One of our core values is protecting customer data, but also respecting the trust of our customers. So everything we do will be at the discretion of our customers,” he said. “But it will give us the ability to understand what our customers want, what they are buying from us and, more importantly, how to give them what they want.”

Meanwhile, Coby is taking John Lewis through a corporate IT transformation programme, which will include, among other projects, creating a shared service for IT across the group. The partner service division will bring together the transactional elements of finance andhuman resources, including the IT infrastructure behind them. “This is clearly about providing an effective service in support of these areas. Running IT efficiently and effectively is going to be part of that mission,” said Coby.

Cost-effective IT operationsCoby also is focused on keeping the day-to-day IT systems running, ensuring they are running in a cost-effective way. “We have a very ambitious growth plan. This year, we are opening three ‘at homes’, which are the small-format store. And Stratford, of course, leading up to the Olympics, which is a full-format store,” he said.

“This year, opening in Exeter will be a store with the full format of John Lewis, on a smaller footprint. That is going to be enabled by the use of technology. And we have a store in Birmingham coming up.” All of these will mean more work for the IT department and more investment in technology.

“Our vision is to build a single order management program”Paul Coby, CIO, John Lewis


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Graph 6a: Worldwide cloud computing priorities

Cloud computing is talked about a lot, but implementation plans are slower taking off

“Recessionary effects appear to be spread fairly uniformly across small, medium and large companies”Mark Schlack, vice-president, editorial, TechTarget

And 12% are planning to integrate external cloud with their internal systems, accord-ing to our research. For organisations that are implementing cloud computing, 31% rate it as a high priority and half as a medium priority.

Many organisations appear to be testing the water with private cloud infrastructure, which allows them greater control of their data. However 19% plan to move on to public cloud infrastructure.

SaaS is the most popular choice of cloud, featuring in nearly 60% of IT respondents cloud plans.

6.1 CommentaryThe take-up of cloud computing can only grow. For small and medium-sized companies, buying cloud services is more cost-effective than investing in equipment to provide the same services internally.

Over time, large companies are developing their own private cloud services. And they will turn to external cloud providers to buy-in extra capacity when they need it. But the transition will be gradual.

“Nobody in a large enterprise that has five or six datacentres is going to shut them all down and move to the cloud. But if a datacentre needs to be replaced and it is going to cost £30m to replace it, that is when they will look at cloud,” said Roy Illsey, Ovum analyst.

Graph 6b: UK cloud plans

Software as a service is the most popular form of cloud project planned in 2012, featuring in nearly 60% of businesses’ cloud plans (53 UK responses)

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CIO panel: Business intelligenceChannel 4’s Kevin Gallagher, CIO, said analytics technology will help the broadcaster build stronger links with its audience. He plans to develop the Channel 4 website, adding registration content that will allow the broadcaster to analyse viewers’ preferences. “We are doing more work on analytics to understand user behaviour so that we have more to offer to advertisers,” he says.

Paul Coby, CIO at retailer John Lewis, is evaluating a project to build a customer knowledge database, covering the John Lewis department store and Waitrose supermarket.“It will give us a better understanding of what our customers want, and the ability to be able to personalise their needs,” he says.

On a smaller scale, Ali Jaffri, ICT manager at housing association Gallions Housing, is investing in a database that will help the association manage its relationships with suppliers. Jaffri, whose IT budget for 2012 has been cut from £250,000 to £150,000, believes the project could reduce purchasing costs by a third.

“We have a very small database at the moment to do purchase ordering, but we are going to streamline purchasing, and have a single supplier list so we can ask suppliers for more discounts,” he says.

CIO priorities 2012: Richard Hall, business advisorAs an advisor to a company that specialises in restructuring and turning struggling businesses around, Richard Hall (pictured) gets to see a of a lot of IT departments. Hall, CEO of consultancy CloudOrigin and advisor to professional services firm Alvarez & Marsal, is an expert in helping businesses make their IT operations more cost-effective.

The real cost of ITHall said it is surprising just how few IT departments have a real idea how much they actually spend on IT. “Sadly, we have to spend a lot of time just to get a picture of what the IT cost is to begin with,” he said in an interview to accompany the 2012 Computer Weekly/TechTarget IT priorities survey.

“When the costs of power, energy, security and real estate are factored in, IT can cost businesses more than they think. Of course, in the current economic climate, we are typically looking for ways to grow and expand offerings and geographies without increasing fixed cost.

Reducing costs with cloudCloud computing, particularly software-as-a-service (SaaS), is the best strategy to reduce IT costs, according to Hall. Typically, most enterprises are looking at infrastructure-as-a-service blended with the existing IT as a hybrid. But ideally, we are looking to large-scale shifts to SaaS.

The availability of higher-speed internet access has made it easier for multinationals to roll out new cloud services, such as managed print services, he said. We can try out new solutions and go to market with them without having datacentres in the cloud. That is a big plus, said Hall.

On a bigger scale, Hall is an advocate of business process outsourcing (BPO), which involves transferring not only the IT, but complete business processes, such as human resources or invoicing, to a third party.

Tablet PCs will take offWindows 8 will attract huge interest this year, particularly from businesses that are looking to invest in mobile computing, Hall predicted. A lot of people are looking at the strategy of bring-your-own-device (BYOD), and hence to offset the cost to the employee. That is extremely attractive to employees and employers, he said. Windows 8 is going to be the big push in terms of deployment, refresh and form factor, particularly Windows tablets. A whole platform of different mobile devices and the technologies to manage those devices are going to be key.

CIO role will disappearBut ultimately, as more IT functions are outsourced, the CIO role and the IT department is likely to disappear, he said. Increasingly, the CIO and COO roles will merge. Many good CIOs I know have become COOs. And I am not sure that in 10 years’ time there will be many independent CIOs, or indeed an IT department that we would recognise, in large corporations, he said.

“The CIO role and the IT department is

likely to disappear”Richard Hall,

business advisor


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7.0 Infrastructure projects

Server virtualisation features at the top of the list of infrastructure projects, with 60% listing it in their plans for 2012 (see section 5).

The topic has been a priority for businesses for the past few years, driven partly by datacentre consolidation. It offers a way for businesses to cut their infrastructure costs and gain a rapid return on investment.Disaster recovery and business continuity comes in second place, featuring in 40% of UK organisations’ infrastructure plans. Tougher regulation, and the publicity given to high-profile data breaches, are making this area a higher priority for organisations (see section 12).

Datacentre consolidation helps businesses to streamline their IT infrastructure and make it more compact and cost-efficient. Some 20% list consolidation as one of their infrastructure initiatives planned for 2012 (see section 9).

Cloud infrastructure projects are less frequent. Around 16% are planning private cloud projects, while 12% plan to integrate their systems with the external cloud. Some 9% are planning to migrate to cloud e-mail services (see section 6).

Although energy-efficient computing offers the potential to cut IT running costs, only around 13% of IT infrastructure projects will focus on some form of energy-efficient computing.

Businesses have put green IT on the backburner until the economy recovers, said Ovum analyst Roy Illsley: “This year it is down to cost. If it is going to save you money, do it. If not, park it.”

Linux and open source are promising in theory, but in practice few commercial organisations deploy them in any quantity. Although it offers the potential for lower licence and development costs, few CIOs see open source as a contender in business. Only 6% of UK IT professionals are planning a Linux infrastructure project this year.

“Open source sounds good but when you dig deeper, CIOs don’t have confidence it’s going to work,” said Illsley. “None of the banks are using open source, and none of the pharmaceutical companies are using open source.”


“This year it is down to cost. If it is going to save you money, do it. If not, park it”Roy Illsley, Ovum analyst

Graph 7a: Infrastructure projects planned for 2012

Server virtualisation features on 60% of IT professionals’ infrastructure plans in 2012, with disaster recovery and business continuity featuring in 42%. Datacentre consolidation comes in third place, but cloud projects are less popular (sample: 108 responses)

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Server virtualisation

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8.0 Software

8.1 Business intelligence, analytics and data warehousingAround 40% of IT professionals are planning business analytics, intelligence and data warehousing projects.

These projects are a high priority for 36% of UK IT professionals and a medium priority for 57%, according to the research.

Business analytics is attractive in the downturn, offering the potential for businesses to generate new revenue streams from data they already hold.

Many businesses are looking at big data technology to analyse terabytes of data collected from customers’ behaviour on retail websites, for example, as a way of finding a competitive edge. “It is one of the things that just about everybody is talking about,” says Ovum analyst, Roy Illsley.

8.2 Custom softwareOver 40% of IT decision-makers surveyed plan to deploy custom software. The findings are at first sight surprising, given that businesses are accelerating the move towards packaged software to keep costs down.

However, research from Forrester suggests that although businesses are deploying a lot of custom software, it only accounts for a small proportion of their software spending.

In a Forrester survey, 36% of respondents claimed to run 100 or more major custom applications in their datacentres today, while only 15% claimed to run fewer than five. Only 18% of respondents claimed to devote between 25% and 50% of IT spend to developing and maintaining custom applications, while 30% claimed that custom applications account for less than 10% of IT spend.

In general, businesses are targeting custom applications to support smaller user communities in highly differentiated specialist processes, and using packaged software for more widely used applications.

8.3 Collaboration platformsJust 15% of IT decision-makers said they planned to deploy collaboration platforms in 2012. Yet it will be a significant year for collaboration tools, with Microsoft set to release SharePoint 2012 and Exchange 2012, while Google Docs is gaining momentum as a cloud collaboration platform.


Business analytics is attractive in the downturn, offering the potential for businesses to generate new revenue streams from data they already hold

Business intelligence, business process automation, and content management systems are the most popular packaged software projects planned for 2012 (131 responses)

Graph 8a: Software initiatives planned for 2012

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CIO priorities 2012 Kevin Gallagher, CIO, Channel 4Channel 4’s IT department will see its IT budget increase this year, following a successful year for advertising revenue. “We had a very good year in 2011, so we are in a position to invest,” said CIO Kevin Gallagher. “And we have an opportunity to get good value because other people will not be investing.”

Business analyticsA priority for Channel 4 is to develop data analytics technology to forge closer links with viewers and to better understand their viewing habits, Gallagher said in an interview to accompany the 2012 Computer Weekly/TechTarget IT priorities survey. “We are doing more work on analytics to understand user behaviour, so that we have more to offer to advertisers,” said Gallagher.

The broadcaster plans to introduce premium content on its website that will encourage viewers to register their details in return for a more personalised service. “It will offer more personalisation, and recommendations that are more relevant to what they have watched. That is the big theme for the end of the year,” he said.

In particular, Gallagher is looking at the Hadoop open source big data platform as a way of analysing how viewers interact with Channel 4’s website. “That will be a big learning curve for us, for analysing web data. There are hundreds of millions of video views every year, and we want to start analysing how people are behaving,” he said.

Two screens are better than oneResearch shows that people don’t watch TV in isolation. Quite often they will have an iPad or a mobile phone in their hands. Channel 4 wants to capitalise on this by developing applications that people can use as they watch TV. “We are looking at play-along games,” he said.

Video on-demandThe broadcaster rolled out its 4OD video on-demand service to the Xbox, iPhone and iPad last year. This year, Channel 4, working with other broadcasters, plans to launch YouView, a set-top box that will combine Freeview with video on-demand and a personal video recorder, another major IT challenge.

Paralympic gamesChannel 4 is also busy gearing up to broadcast the Paralympics summer 2012, and that will impact on the IT department. “There will certainly be a lot of support from IT, and innovation as well,” said Gallagher. “We are looking at opportunities around open source, cost-effectiveness, and freeing up funds to use elsewhere.”

Research projectsThe IT department will also play an important role in advising the business on future research technology trends. “There has been a lot of talk about internet-connected TVs and what they mean. That is a challenge for us, because there is no standardisation there,” he said. “We will be looking at which are the most popular.”

In particular, Channel 4 wants to work out what the convergence between the internet and television will mean for advertising. Gallagher said this is a project that will run over several years.

We are doing more work on analytics to

understand user behaviour

Kevin Gallagher, CIO, Channel 4

8.4 Packaged software Fully 24% of IT decision-makers said they planned to deploy packaged applications in 2012, with enterprise resource planning (ERP), business intelligence (BI), and customer relationship management (CRM) among the most popular.

Interest in packages software is reflected in the results from ERP companies like SAP, which is experiencing major growth in its mobility, cloud and database businesses.

Some 35% of people are planning business process management (BPM) projects in 2012. With the economy far from healthy, businesses see BPM as a route to growing their business.

CIOs in organisations that have implemented BPM spend 10% less on operational IT, compared with those who have not run a BPM programme, according to Gartner. Carphone Warehouse, for example, saw a 120% increase in customer sales after rolling out BPM. (See article here: Carphone-Warehouse-uses-business-process-management-to-increase-customer-satisfaction).


http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240105081/Carphone-Warehouse-uses-business-process-management-to-increase-customer-satisfaction

http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240105081/Carphone-Warehouse-uses-business-process-management-to-increase-customer-satisfaction

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8.5 Windows 8Windows 8 is set to shake up the PC market, effectively bridging the divide between consumer devices for work and office computers. The new operating system (OS) borrows from tablet trends. But unlike iOS or Android, Windows 8 will be a fully-fledged operating system, capable of running sophisticated client applications. The Computer Weekly and TechTarget study did not show much current interest in the unreleased OS, but businesses are likely to deploy it organically as legacy Windows PCs are replaced in the coming years.

New tablet devices from the major PC manufacturers will also bring Windows 8 into the corporations via the back door, as will bring-your-own-device (BYOD) to work policies. (See article here: Windows 8: Make or break time for the Microsoft money-maker.)

9.0 Datacentre consolidation

Around 20% of IT organisations are including datacentre consolidation among their infrastructure projects in 2012, and 34% are considering it among their broader IT projects.

While server consolidation increases the utilisation of server hardware by allowing one physical server to host multiple virtual machine (VM) instances; datacentre consolidation helps businesses to streamline their IT infrastructure and make it more compact and cost-efficient. It allows IT professionals to converge all IT equipment within their datacentre facility; servers, storage, networking, security, and applications. This makes their infrastructure cost-efficient as it takes fewer resources to manage these independent components.

CIO priorities 2012: Ali Jaffri, ICT manager, Gallions Housing

Like all housing associations, Gallions Housing is looking to rein in its costs following cutbacks in central government grants.

The housing association has seen its IT budget reduced from £250,000 to £100,000 this year, as it looks to free up more internal cash for housing project work.

“Our IT strategy implementation is being classified into things that are ‘must have’ and ‘nice to have’, and we are prioritising more of the projects that could bring in a quicker return on investment,” said ICT manager Ali Jaffri.

Gallions expects quick returns from investing in SharePoint this year. The project will allow the housing association to manage its internal data more effectively. Each year, Gallions spends £10,000 adding new storage capacity to its network. Moving to SharePoint will reduce the upgrade costs, according to Jaffri.

Jaffri is also investing in a project ordering system, which will give Gallions a single view of all its suppliers. “We are going to streamline purchasing and have a single supplier list, so we can ask suppliers for more (bulk) discounts,” he said. Once up and running the system could bring savings of 30% on purchases.

Other projects have had to go on the back-burner, including an upgrade to Gallion’s virtual machine platform and a mobile data project.


Graph 8c: Packaged software initiatives in 2012

Business intelligence, ERP, CRM, and finance and accounting software are the most popular in 2012 (236 global responses, 28 UK responses)

Graph 8b: How will software be deployed

Over 60% of IT professionals responsible for software are planning to deploy on premise software, 40% are planning SaaS, and 28% are planning to deploy software on a private cloud (103 responses)

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http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240123363/Windows-8-Make-or-break-time-for-the-Microsoft-money-maker

http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240123363/Windows-8-Make-or-break-time-for-the-Microsoft-money-maker

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Consolidation also helps in reducing datacentre energy consumption; a key concern for many professionals amid stricter carbon emissions regulations in the UK and in Europe, and brings power costs down.

Despite its benefits, a third of respondents (33%) are considering consolidation. This may be because virtualisation and server consolidation are the foundation for a successful datacentre consolidation strategy and many enterprises are still at the server consolidation stage.

Consolidation should be approached in phases and must be an ongoing strategy as business grows and as new technologies are brought in. IT professionals are advised to adopt the strategy of starting by virtualising and consolidating non-critical or low-priority workloads and then move on to mission-critical applications.

The majority (72%) of UK IT professionals questioned are prioritising virtual server farms as a primary way to increase system utilisation. This indicates that the practice of using a cluster of servers within a datacentre hasn’t changed and that server farms are still an inherent part of an organisation’s IT infrastructure and datacentre design.

One surprise finding is that despite its hype and the launch of a slew of cloud infrastructure and cloud management tools, less than a fifth (18%) of IT professionals are looking at implementing cloud infrastructure.

Although a virtualised datacentre is seen as the foundation for a private cloud infrastructure, more IT professionals are keen to use outsourced services (27%) over cloud-based infrastructure. This may be because barriers such as data security on the cloud and costly service level agreements with cloud service providers are stopping businesses from adopting cloud computing.

However, professionals’ interest in virtual server farms can be seen as an indication of a healthy cloud adoption in the future as virtual servers allow businesses to create a distributed application model in the cloud while still maintaining core server infrastructure within their datacentres.

10.0 Storage

The top storage and back-up initiatives among UK IT departments in 2012 are disaster recovery and virtual machine back-up.

Some 39% of 225 European IT professionals surveyed put these areas at the top of the storage to-do list for 2012. Third came storage virtualisation, which will be deployed by 28% of those questioned in 2012. Fourth-, fifth- and sixth-placed

CIO panel: MobilityIn the West Midlands Police, CIO Chris Price says mobile devices will help officers to spend more time on the beat and less time on paperwork.

When a caller rings in to report a crime, that information could be taken down and sent to the officer visiting the crime scene on a mobile device, he says.

“Potentially, the officer could press a button and produce a witness statement for someone to sign, there and then,” says Price.

Retailer John Lewis is testing tablet computers in its stores to allow sales assistants to check what items are in stock while they are with a customer. “They have JohnLewis.com on their pad, so that enables us to show the whole range,” says CIO Paul Coby.

And Hampshire County Council is banking on mobile technology to bring big savings in office costs. The council’s “Workstyle” programme will make it possible for people to work on the move, from home, from drop-in points and from partner organisations, says head of IT Jos Creese. The project aims to generate £2m in annual revenue savings by using council buildings more efficiently.


Using virtual server farms is the favoured method of consolidating datacentres (165 global responses, 22 UK responses)

Graph 9a: Which approach are you taking to consolidate your datacentres?

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CIO priorities 2012: Dave Glanville, IT manager, St Christopher’s FellowshipSt Christopher’s Fellowship, a charity which provides services for vulnerable young people and children in care, relies heavily on government funding. Not surprisingly, with the recession and government cutbacks, the charity has had to tighten its belt this year.

But IT manager Dave Glanville said St Christopher’s IT department is well positioned to weather the storm. “Our funding comes from government and local government in the UK. So anything that is not statutory is a target for being stopped,” he said, in an interview to accompany our 2012 Computer Weekly/TechTarget IT priorities survey.

St Christopher’s has responded by offering more flexible services to clients in local and central government. Local authorities, for example, can now book a single space in a children’s home, rather than having to book the entire home on a multi-year contract.

“The effect on IT is that we also have to be quick and agile in responding to that. We can’t guarantee that a project will be there in three years, so we have to move more quickly,” he said.

Reducing costsSt Christopher’s began preparing for public sector cuts some time ago, rolling out Citrix desktops before the recession kicked in. “The benefits were fantastic,” said Glanville.

Now, the charity does not have to spend time setting up desktop computers whenever it opens a new home. It can simply send a new machine through the post.

The charity has also saved money by reducing the number of IT service providers it works with. “We only have one broadband supplier in the UK, so when we open up a new centre, it’s a very quick process for them to get in there and do the job,” he said.

Although St Christopher’s has not cancelled any major IT projects, it has delayed some, to spread the cost out over a number of years.

Server virtualisationGlanville is focusing on future projects that will bring a quick return. The charity plans to upgrade its infrastructure to Windows 8, and server virtualisation is a priority from April.

“We will see the return on investment in two years with server virtualisation. I think the timing is good,” he said. “But we also want to be more easily able to test stuff in a much more flexible test environment, which virtualisation will give us.” Virtualisation will also bring down the costs of the charity’s disaster recovery service, which is charged on a per server basis, he said.

Cloud serviceThe charity has already moved client management systems, and e-mail services such as filtering and archiving into the cloud. As a result, it has been able to reduce costs and retire outdated infrastructure.

“E-mail is the prime example of that. In the past, we were constantly having to tweak, reboot and sort out e-mail. Now we don’t have to bother, unless we need to dive into the archive,” said Glanville.

“One of the reasons for going to virtualisation in the next financial year is that if we decide to go to cloud with some of our servers, it becomes a very easy process,” he said.

The charity will lay the groundwork this year for a customer relationship management (CRM) project to help it manage its relationships with the local authorities that buy services more effectively. Although no final decisions have been made, Glanville believes CRM is another prime candidate for the cloud.

“One of the reasons for going to virtualisation in the next financial

year is that if we decide to go to cloud with some of our servers,

it becomes a very easy process” Dave Glanville, IT manager, St Christopher’s Fellowship


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priorities are cloud storage or back-up (21%), data deduplication for back-up (20%), and data reduction for primary storage (17%).

10.1 Cloud storageCloud computing emerged as a “broad initiative” for a significant portion of those questioned (27%). Of those, 28% said they would use the cloud for storage and 30% for disaster recovery.

The survey revealed IT professionals’ main reservations about working with external cloud services providers. Security was ranked highest as a worry, with reliability and protection of data behind that.

10.2 Cost is driverSo what is driving storage priorities? Firstly there is the need to cut costs. A majority of respondents said they were in recession (28%) or are slowly recovering from it (40%).

Server virtualisation is a high priority for those questioned (58%) as organisations seek to reduce the running costs of their datacentres. It brings with it the need for a number of associated projects that cost money, such as optimising storage and back-up for virtual machines.

Compliance is the second major driver for investment in data protection and disaster recovery. Just under a quarter of respondents (24.5%) said complying with legal and industry regulation is a priority.

10.3 Questions over storage virtualisationSome questions must be raised regarding storage virtualisation, which emerged as the third highest storage priority. Storage virtualisation pools heterogeneous storage capacity to provide one shared reservoir of capacity.

Interest in it has been spurred by server virtualisation, but other research by TechTarget suggests actual take-up has not been high.


What ICT professionals sayRoger Bearpark, assistant head of ICT at Hillingdon council, said traditional disaster recovery (DR) is becoming less important as the organisation moves to the cloud, but for him, virtual machine (VM) back-up is an ongoing priority.

“We’re moving to a cloud services environment with e-mail and Office applications using Google Apps for Business. All of which makes traditional DR a thing of the past. But, yes, virtual machine back-up has been a big project for us, and we’ve done it, but I can understand it’s a big deal for many people going through the process right now”.

Aaron Wilson, senior systems administrator at Oxford University Computing Services, however, talked about how disaster recovery was an ongoing concern in a large and complex organisation.

“DR is important to us. We have solutions in place, but we constantly review those as developments in the infrastructure occur. We already have equipment in dual locations for many aspects of our services,” he said.

Wayne Morris, project implementation manager with animal welfare charity The Blue Cross, reflected the experience of a much smaller organisation at the start of the journey towards server virtualisation.

“Our IT infrastructure is under review right now and we’re looking at server virtualisation. We recognise that we will need shared storage capacity and that back-up is a major thing we’ll need to tackle as part of that project”.

Graph 10a: UK companies planning storage initiatives in 2012

Disaster recovery, back-up for virtual servers and storage virtualisation are top of the list of UK IT professionals’ storage priorities in 2012 (111 UK responses)

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CIO priorities 2012: Jos Creese, CIO, Hampshire County CouncilIT is the key to reducing costs, according to Jos Creese, CIO at Hampshire County Council.

With an 8% cut in IT spending for 2012, Creese is looking to reduce the cost of running Hampshire’s existing IT infrastructure, and to use it more effectively.

“We are working on a range of transformational programmes which would drive productivity, the closest possible business alignment of IT and corporate objectives,” he said, in an interview to accompany the 2012 Computer Weekly/TechTarget IT priorities survey.

The council is looking to form partnerships with IT suppliers, and to develop shared services that will spread IT costs across a number of different users.

Cloud computing is also a high priority, said Creese, particularly where it offers greater flexibility at a lower cost. Pilots underway include putting services in the cloud for several Hampshire schools.

“We have consolidated much of our estate already. This is one way in which we keep our overall IT cost among the lowest,” he said. “We also have a programme to consolidate the number of suppliers we work with to reduce overall costs of IT.”

The council’s desktop strategy is focused on thin client devices, but Creese is prioritising mobile and flexible working to allow more people to work from home and on the move, through the council’s Workstyle Programme.

We have a programme to consolidate the number of suppliers we work with to reduce overall costs of IT.

Security will remain a high priority during 2012, particularly as the council introduces more shared services.

“One of our priorities for the coming year will be to look at the role of identity management to create secure, but flexible access,” he said.

“We have consolidated much of our estate already. This is one

way in which we keep our overall IT cost among the lowest”

Jos Creese, CIO Hampshire County Council

11.0 Desktop projects

11.1 Windows 7Microsoft’s announcement that it will end support for Windows XP is a powerful incentive for companies to upgrade to Windows 7 this year. Some 60% of UK professionals are planning Windows 7 projects this year, the Computer Weekly/TechTarget survey reveals.

“Windows 7 is very much on our minds,” says Chris Price CIO at West Midlands Police. “At this point, we are looking at a Citrix-based introduction.” Running Windows 7 on a thin client makes it easier and less expensive to manage IT infrastructure, and to provide mobile access to company systems.

Some 27% of UK IT professionals questioned are planning thin client/desktop virtualisation projects this year, the research found. Around 17% are planning application virtualisation (click here for definition) projects to deliver software applications to thin clients.

Although there is much talk about organisations using online productivity


Graph 11a: Organisations planning desktop projects in 2012

Windows 7 tops the list of desktop projects in 2012 (75 responses)

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12.0 Security

Data protection will be the top security initiative for most UK organisations in 2012. Media focus on the topic is driving public awareness as the increasing powers of the Information Commissioner’s Office draw the board’s attention to the risks.

Some 43% of UK organisations questioned said that they plan to implement data protection initiatives in the coming year. Similarly, 21.6% plan to invest in identity and access management and 23.9% in threat management, including anti-malware systems.

12.1 Financial costAnalysts say the focus on data protection may be linked to the fact that the Information Commissioner’s Office is increasingly exercising its power to impose monetary penalties of up to £500,000 for serious data breaches.

In a difficult economic climate, limited financial resources play a guiding principle in many of the information security spending decisions for the coming year.

A more data-centric approach to security has been advocated for quite some time, yet 40.9% of the UK companies polled plan to invest in network-based security in 2012. In reality, data-centric security remains out of reach for most organisations as their information security strategy and operational readiness remain immature.

12.2 Back to basicsIn times of austerity, businesses often consider it imperative to maximise the spread of protection and to concentrate on the basics, said Mark Brown, chief information security officer at SAB Miller.

Consequently, businesses are concentrating on network security to establish a baseline maturity before tackling more focused security issues, he said.

According to the survey, application security is a high priority for businesses in 2012, yet only 26.1% of businesses polled plan projects this year. “With limited budgets, it is often a case of providing security protection in alignment with a maturity model, starting with the basics and then advancing up the capability

applications, such as online word processors and spreadsheets, fewer than 10% of organisations are planning projects in this area. Early adopters include Guardian News and Media, which rolled out Google Apps to its journalists in 2009. However other organisations remain cautious about relying on cloud services for word processing and spreadsheets.


“Only once a sense of security has been achieved in the network perimeter, will a move to focus on application security be achieved”Mark Brown, CISO, SAB Miller

Graph 12a: Security initiatives 2012

Data protection featured as the top security initiative in 2012, following publicity over data breaches and increased regulatory scrutiny (88 responses)

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curve,” said Brown.

Only once a sense of security has been achieved in the network perimeter, will a move to focus on application security be achieved, he said.

12.3 Mobile securityMobilisation is another hot topic in business IT, but according to the survey only 28.4% of respondents plan to implement mobile security initiatives in 2012. While this may appear low, the actual figures of adoption throughout enterprise of smart mobile endpoints remains dwarfed by traditional IT deployments. Another factor is that security solutions have not caught up to the problem at hand.

Piers Wilson, senior manager in the information security practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said only around a third of companies are actively looking for security around mobile devices.

The front runners have already implemented such systems and the remaining third are not yet ready, he says.

13.0 Networking

Networking is set for a year of change in 2012 with the 802.11ac (click here for definition) wireless networking variant of Wi-Fi set to be finalised in the second half of the year, with products supporting the standard on the market by the end of 2012.

The new standard is expected to offer an accelerated performance equivalent to Gigabit Ethernet (click here for definition), so it makes sense that the majority of survey respondents will be implementing new wireless networks and IP telephony at some point this year.

Enterprises will seek to take advantage of the increased flexibility of an all-wireless workspace by using services such as IP telephony, unified communications and video conferencing, said Gartner research director Mark Hung.

“For enterprises, workspace design and deployment can be simplified and made flexible with the reduction in wiring. In addition, workers can be more mobile and productive with the reduced need to be tethered to a designated work space.” These technologies are considered vital to keeping businesses thriving and appear to be taking priority over other cabling issues because, in the face of continued economic uncertainty and government austerity, business strategies call for a combination of growth and operational efficiency.


“One third of companies are actively looking for security around mobile devices”Piers Wilson, senior manager, information security, PwC

Graph 13a: Networking projects in 2012

Wireless networks, IP telephone and network virtualisation are among the most popular network projects in 2012 (103 responses)

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However, the 6 June launch of IPv6 (the new net address system that replaces the current protocol IPv4, which had been about to run out of spaces to allocate) could present additional challenges to internet-reliant firms.

14.0 Mobile IT

The increasing consumerisation of IT and demand for companies to run bring-your-own-device schemes means that smartphones and tablets are proliferating in the enterprise.

It makes sense that companies are rethinking legacy tools to take advantage of having access to data and applications across all kinds of devices. IT professionals are under pressure to enable access to mobile devices via secure virtual private networks (VPNs) and to implement enterprise mobile device management (MDM) systems that can protect enterprise handsets from potential attacks.

Ultimately organisations aim to support corporate e-mail and other applications on consumer products, such as iPhone, iPad and Android devices, but they face tough decisions when it comes to choosing an MDM solution.

MDM software secures, monitors and manages an array of personal and enterprise-issued mobile devices. It also supports over-the-air distribution of applications, data and configuration settings.

Juniper Networks claims that Android devices have seen a 472% surge in the number of new viruses crafted to attack them since July 2011.

Phillip Redman, vice-president of research at Gartner, said: “IT organisations struggle to identify the right options for investment but the rapid evolution of mobile devices and business requirements makes it difficult to identify a clear set of MDM requirements.”

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“Workers can be more mobile and productive with the reduced need to be tethered to a designated work space”Mark Hung, research director, Gartner

Graph 14a: UK mobile IT projects planned in 2012

Tablet PCs and smartphones feature strongly in organisations’ plans for 2012. As companies roll out these devices, they are investing in mobile device management, mobile security, and are enhancing their existing IT systems to be accessible from mobile devices (142 responses)

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15.0 UK survey demographics

Over half of the UK IT professionals that took part in the survey were at management level. Around 25% were IT directors or senior IT managers and 29% were mid-level IT managers.

CIOs, CTOs and vice presidents made up 3% of the respondents. Some 10% of the respondents identified themselves as analysts, 12% as architects, 12% as IT staff, and 10% engineers or programmers.

The main activities of UK respondents were general IT management (40%), application development (29%), program management (27%) and server management (24%).

The financial services and banking industry, one of the largest users of IT, was represented by 14% of IT professionals that took part in the research. Some 13% worked in education. Around 11% worked in computer services and consulting, 9% in retail, wholesale and distribution, 7% in government and 7% in manufacturing and industry.

Around 20% of the IT professionals who took part in the survey worked for organisations employing between 1,000 and 5,000 people. However there was a strong response from both smaller and larger businesses. Some 24% worked in organisations employing between 5,000 and 100,000, with 3.6% working in organisations employing over 100,000.

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Graph 15b: UK respondents by number of employees

Just over 18% of UK IT professionals who took part in the survey worked for organisations employing between 1,000 and 5,000 people. Some 28% came from organisations of between 100 and 500 people. Some 27% worked in organisations employing more than 5,000 (165 responses)

Graph 15a: UK respondents by company turnover

Over 25% of UK IT professionals that took part in the research work in companies with less than £10m turnover. Some 33% work in companies with turnovers of between £10m and £100m, and 40% in organisations with turnovers of more than £100m (166 responses)

The main activities of UK respondents were general IT management, application development, program management and server management

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Graph 15c: UK respondents by sector

The majority of IT professionals who responded to the survey came from the financial services and banking sector, with 13% from education, 10% from retail, wholesale and distribution. Government made up 7% of the respondents, and manufacturing and industry another 7% (165 responses)

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Graph 15d: UK respondents by activity

The main activities of UK respondents were general IT management (40%), application development (29%), program management (27%) and server management (24%)

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16.0 Contributors

This report was written and edited by Bill Goodwin, premium content editor, Computer Weekly, with contributions and help from:

Mark Schlack, vice-president, editorial, at TechTarget.

Antony Adshead, UK bureau chief, Searchstorage.co.uk

Warwick Ashford, security editor, Computer Weekly

Cliff Saran, managing editor (technology), Computer Weekly

Archana Venkatraman, site editor of SearchVirtualDataCentre.co.uk.

Computer Weekly would like to thank the following CIOs, IT directors and analysts who gave interviews for this research:

Chris Price, CIO, Westminster PoliceDave Glanville, IT manager, St Christopher’s FellowshipPaul Coby, CIO, John LewisKevin Gallagher, CIO, Channel 4Jos Creese, head of IT, Hampshire County CouncilAli Jaffri, ICT manager, Gallions HousingRoy Illsley, principal analyst, OvumDave Aron, vice-president & Gartner Fellow

Documents

The Computer Weekly and TechTarget IT Priorities Survey 2012 ...docs.media.bitpipe.com/io_10x/io_102267/item_563223/prem_IT_Pri… · Microsoft’s decision to end support for the