Risky business to top 2004 IT spending

Risky business to top 2004 IT spending | CNET News.com:

Last modified: November 10, 2003, 1:27 PM PST
By Dawn Kawamoto
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Security and data disaster recovery rank among the top information technology priorities for 2004--a year in which overall technology spending is expected to remain cautious, according to a Forrester Research report released Monday.

North American IT budgets are expected to increase to $729.2 billion next year, up 1.7 percent from the level anticipated for this year, according to a survey of more than 800 technology decision makers. Forrester itself says budgets could grow as much as 4 percent, as IT spending catches up with the economy.

'More firms are saying they expect their budgets to increase over last year. But I would not say the increase will be dramatic,' said Tom Pohlmann, research director at Forrester. 'We expect much of the growth to occur in the latter half of next year as the economy improves.'

More than half the companies surveyed listed risk management initiatives as their top priority for next year.

Twenty-one percent surveyed listed upgrading disaster recovery systems as the critical theme for 2004, while 20 percent cited security upgrades. Thirty-one percent listed both areas."