Despite recession fears, most companies plan to expand their IT budgets over the next year.
Spiceworks Ziff Davis (SWZD) summarizes this in its article report on the status of IT 2023 from now on. Of the nearly 1,000 IT customers surveyed, 83% mentioned that they had been involved in the impact a recession in 2023 could have on their businesses. Still, just over half mentioned that they are likely to increase IT spending in 2023, while only 6 percent mentioned that they will cut IT finances.
Peter Tsai, senior technology analyst at SWZD, mentioned at an information conference that he was shocked when the information was cross-referenced: Of the companies that were preparing to cut overall corporate spending in 2023, 68% still planned to cut spending to increase IT budgets.
IT: The last priority?
About 40% of financial growth could come from inflation, although respondents mentioned value growth as a secondary function, the report said.
As an alternative, IT budgets are primarily centered around the need to replace obsolete {hardware}, which is a higher priority for IT planning, employee advancement, and security considerations. All of this suggests that the corporate community had an epiphany early in the COVID-19 pandemic, in line with Jim Rapoza, vice president and senior analyst at SWZD subsidiary Aberdeen Technical and Analysis.
“Companies investing in proprietary technology during the pandemic have noticed important advantages. Our analysis found that efficiency, reliability, security and even lower full IT prices for organizations modernizing their infrastructure— Even if it was unnecessary initially,” Rapoza said.
Rapoza added that the teachings discovered in the early days of the pandemic are still recent in the minds of many executives, saying that those who choose to put money into IT modernization and infrastructure have not only survived the pandemic, but many have already profit. As a result, these leaders now see IT investment and agility as a key part of long-term planning.
However, this does not mean that the IT funding landscape will remain the same in the year ahead. As many companies return to the workplace, cloud companies are expected to spend less, while hosting companies tend to spend more. Much of the explanation for this shift, the report states, is that companies will make “appropriate sizing” to “help employees find where they can make the most sense” (i.e. in the workplace or remotely).
With many of the recent IT advancements centered on companies that want to help their employees work remotely, hosting companies will continue to be a part of IT finances.
“After modernizing over the past few years, many people actually tend to turn to companies to help them maintain new proprietary technology stacks,” the report said.
No one longs for another March 2020
The final tone of the 2023 forecast is optimistic, and much depends on the notion that, as Jeff Grettler, SWZD’s global head of IT, puts it, “the disruption of the pandemic has made people immediately fearful.”
“That’s the end result of a disaster recovery situation,” Grettler replied from registry. He mentioned that while many companies have managed to fix their problems and get to work, they don’t inherently want to be in a place where disaster or another wave of COVID-19 requires quick changes to business operations.
“Worry is a powerful ally,” Grettler said.
In the end, the report concludes that in 2020, the business world has discovered lessons about agility, making IT spending a priority. The IT department may suffer by then, but when SWZD’s predictions come true, that won’t happen sooner or later.
Conclusion: COVID-19 Pandemic “Return to Work”[ed] How decision makers consider and ultimately consider in-office expertise,” it said. ®
IT budgets will increase in 2023, regardless of inflation and recession fears • The Register