A major survey by Accenture and the Economist Intelligence Unit has revealed that most firms plan to increase their IT spending in 2010. Businesses in the UK and Ireland are reported to be the most optimistic, with 63% of business leaders anticipating their spending on technology will increase. This is put down partly to the fact that the UK went into the downturn slightly earlier than the rest of the world and that there has been an earlier recognition that investment in IT is necessary to cut costs in other parts of the business. The survey also indicates that a tipping point has been reached, where IT, receiving greater recognition as core to the business, is being much more closely aligned with the business than before.

The most pressing priority for 44% of IT chiefs is the need to reduce costs by consolidating and virtualising their servers. This ties in with a recent report by industry analysts Gartner, which states that worldwide the server market is beginning to show signs of stabilisation. The number of server shipments is being led by Hewlett-Packard (HP), who maintain their position ahead of nearest rival Dell. IBM, Fujitsu and Sun remain in the top five. Sun saw the greatest year on year decline. In revenue terms, IBM led the pack with HP coming in close behind.

Away from the server market, other areas that IT chiefs are expecting to increase funding is on e-business and service oriented architecture projects. Businesses are reported to be much more careful about controlling the costs of their IT projects and to that end they are ensuring that the specifications do not change throughout the duration of the project. The focus is also on rationalising existing IT systems and moving to open platforms. Defining and evaluating the risks on projects before investing and looking to get a higher rate of return on the investment are also gaining prominence.