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Survey: IT Decision-Makers ‘Cautiously Optimistic’ on Budget Outlook

State governments are showing a more favorable budget outlook, with 32 percent of state governments expecting budget increases, according to the report.

The current economic climate has presented mixed views among IT decision-makers concerning budgets, with only 43 percent respondents of a recent survey expecting to receive a budget increase within the next six months.

The CDW IT Monitor, a bimonthly index of confidence and industry growth, found in its newest report released this that although there’s been a small decrease in budget recovery, IT decision-makers are showing “cautious optimism” and making careful decisions concerning IT spending.

“CIOs are looking at every IT investment in terms of how it makes sense for the business, and our data show they are still spending on key investments, including software and hardware – particularly mobile devices, virtualization and security,” Thomas Richards, president and chief operating officer of CDW, said in the report.

State governments are showing a more favorable budget outlook, with 32 percent of IT decision-makers instate governments expecting budget increases, according to the report. Although this reading is down two percentage points from June 2010 findings, the 32 percent is up eight percentage points from April 2011 findings.

Even with cautious budget outlooks, CIOs intend to continue spending on IT in the second half of the year. Virtualization, security and cloud computing will be top priorities for most IT decision-makers to invest in during the remainder of the year. The study reported that of IT decision-makers who expect to see an increase on IT spending, 56 percent say spending will go toward cloud computing, a jump of 9 percent from April.

Nearly half of IT decision-makers surveyed saying IT security within their respective organization is more of a priority now than it’s been in the past two years.