Professional Documents
Culture Documents
2019 IT-Priorities-Final PDF
2019 IT-Priorities-Final PDF
2019 IT Priorities
This research report delves into IT pros’ priorities
around budgets, practice areas and development
plans. Find out where IT budgets and mind share are
focused.
By Brein Matturro
Download
Download Previous
Previous Next
Next
CONTENTS
ABOUT US. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 FIGURES
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Figure 1: Key Project Types, Bulk of IT Budget Allocations . . . 6
RESEARCH SYNOPSIS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Figure 2: Personal Involvement in 2019 Initiatives . . . . . . . 7
Budget Allocation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Figure 3: Data Backup Projects to Be Deployed in 2019. . . . . 8
Personal IT Involvement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Figure 4: Data Center Infrastructure Projects
Data Backup Projects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 to Be Deployed in 2019. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Data Center Infrastructure Deployment Plans. . . . . . . . . . 8 Figure 5: Deploying Storage-Related Projects. . . . . . . . . 10
Storage-Related Projects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Figure 6: Desktop Projects to Be Deployed in 2019 . . . . . . 11
Desktop Project Plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Figure 7: Security Initiatives to Be Deployed in 2019 . . . . . 12
Security Initiatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Figure 8: S oftware Development Initiatives
to Be Deployed in 2019. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Software Development Initiatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Figure 9: N etworking Initiatives to Be Implemented
Networking Initiatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 in 2019 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Deployment Models. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Figure 10: Deployment Models. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Budget Changes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Figure 11: IT Budget, 2018 vs. 2019 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
APPENDIX
Figure 12: Budget Changes by Initiative. . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Figure 13: IT Spend Control & Allocation
Breakdowns 2018-2019. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
TABLE OF
itprotoday.com 2
Download
Download Previous
Previous Next
Next
The Author
ABOUT US BREIN MATTURRO
Brein Matturro is a technology-focused freelance writer and editor, having spent the past decade-plus as
an editor and managing editor for the application development group at TechTarget.com.
ITPro Today
ITProToday.com is a leading online source of daily news, analysis and how-to’s about the information technology industry.
We help IT professionals and technology stakeholders learn about, assess and manage the acquisition of next-gen technology
that drives business innovation, including — but not limited to — analytics, artificial intelligence/machine learning, cloud com-
puting, compute engines, containers, data center operations, edge computing, hyper-converged infrastructure, the mobile-first
workplace, security, software development and DevOps, storage, and the Internet of Things.
itprotoday.com 3
Download
Download Previous
Previous Next
Next
I
SUMMARY
T is constantly evolving, and the latest, greatest tech tends to garner lots of headlines. Today, IoT, AI and edge computing get
a disproportionate amount of press. However, research conducted among our readership highlights the fact that the tech that
actually occupies the bulk of IT mind share is in mature practice areas, the upkeep of which is critical to businesses’ operations.
Edge computing, for instance, may be on the radar of IT pros involved in data center infrastructure projects, but their time is
more likely to be spent in numerous other types of projects before edge. That’s not to suggest edge computing is not headed for
wider adoption, but, according to our survey, its time is clearly somewhere in the future. Likewise things like GPU-accelerated servers,
NVMe, predictive storage analytics, and AI for security and networking, for example.
These insights are gleaned from our 2019 Information Technology Trends survey. Conducted early this year, we surveyed 158
EXECUTIVE
ITProToday.com readers to get a better understanding of their budget, trends and development plans.
So what, exactly, does occupy the time of IT professionals? Well, for starters, security and cloud computing (as part of data center
infrastructure projects) are bedrock technologies that garner hefty budgets and resource allocations. As businesses are becoming
more acclimated in the cloud, there is a rising trend toward hybrid and private cloud. They allow ease of data access and relieve the
angst of IT departments that may be wary of handing over critical data to public cloud vendors.
Hacking, cyber threats and phishing scams, meanwhile, are still a colossal concern. In 2018, there were approximately 5 billion
data breaches. While that figure represented a drop from 2017’s recorded 7.9 billion breaches, it’s still obviously a huge problem.
Thirty-four percent of survey respondents say they’re involved with security at their company, and 46% reported security as one of
their organization’s top three IT budget targets.
Security is seemingly creeping into all aspects of IT planning, which to some is great news. However, throwing money at an existing
issue doesn’t always fix the problem. “The thing to remember is that just because money is being spent and action is being taken
in and around security, it means little in terms of resilience and where things truly stand,” said Kevin Beaver, author and information
security expert.
With that, let’s dig into the survey results, after the Research Synopsis, to learn more about how cloud, security and other technologies
figure into IT organizations’ initiatives.
itprotoday.com 4
Download
Download Previous
Survey name: Information Technology Trends
Previous Next
Survey date: Jan. 30 to April 10, 2019
Next Region: Global
SYNOPSIS
Purpose: To understand 2019 information technology-related priorities and trends
Methodology: ITPro Today surveyed 158 IT professionals. To encourage prompt response and increase the response rate overall,
A live link was included in the e-mail invitation to route respondents directly to the online survey.
The invitations and survey were branded with the ITPro Today name and logo, in an effort to capitalize on subscriber affinity
RESEARCH
Each respondent was invited to participate in a drawing for one of four $100 gift cards.
Survey respondents came from across a range of vertical industries, with consulting, IT and/or communications services having
the largest share, at 12% of respondents, followed by, in order, financial services; computer/data processing/IT services; health
With regard to company size, about 39% of respondents were from companies with fewer than 100 employees; 27% were from
companies with from 100 to 999 employees; and 35% were from companies with 1,000 or more employees.
About 66% of resopndents were from the United States; 10% were from Western Europe; Asia Pacific, Canada and South America/
Mexico were each represented by 5%; 4% were from Eastern Europe; and Africa and the Middle East each claimed 1%.
itprotoday.com 5
Download
Download Previous
Previous Next
FIGURE 1
Next Budget Allocations
One important goal for our IT trends survey
was to gauge how the IT budget is being spent.
Key Project Types, Bulk of IT Budget Allocations
Which key project types will receive the bulk of IT budget allocations in 2019?
We asked survey respondents to identify the
project types that will receive the bulk of IT budget Data center infrastructure (including IT, network, facilities, colocation, IaaS)
allocations this year, and we allowed respondents 50%
to choose as many as five technologies, from a Security
list of 12. The result? Data center infrastructure 46%
demands the most budget, cited by 50% of Storage
respondents as a technology that will receive 34%
itprotoday.com 6
Download
Download Previous
Previous Next
FIGURE 2
to on-prem approaches, so it seems worthy of the
Next
plurality vote at 36%. Following closely behind at
34% is security, which can hardly be a surprise to Personal Involvement in 2019 Initiatives
anyone who works in IT. Security was also cited by In which of the following IT initiatives will you have the greatest involvement in 2019?
nearly half of respondents as a technology that will
Data center infrastructure (including IT, network, facilities, colocation, IaaS)
receive the bulk of IT budget allocations this year. 36%
Most of the remaining initiatives that respondents
Security
have personal involvement with mirror, in rough 34%
order, IT spending budget plans for 2019, including Data backup
data backup, storage, online applications, desktop 22%
and software development. The percentages are Storage
lower for the personal involvement question than 22%
for the budget allocation question, likely because Online applications, such as cloud-based file sync and share and cloud-based business applications
respondents were allowed to choose only three 21%
responses for the personal involvement question Networking
versus five for the budget question. 18%
Interestingly, mobility is low on both the budget Desktop
and personal involvement questions. Mobile 15%
development continues to be something that Software development
companies tend to outsource, instead of developing 14%
in-house talent. This parallels the web, which in its Broad software initiatives, such as big data analytics and IT automation
early days merely provided the digital analog to 11%
print advertisement as a primary value proposition: Packaged business applications, such as finance/accounting or marketing automation software
Websites were static versions of product brochures. 9%
This scenario has of course evolved and many Mobility
websites today are highly intricate and dynamic 8%
publishing outlets. Mobile development is going Wireless LAN
through the same changes. Grocery chains initially 5%
used mobile technology simply to outsource coupon Other
and shopping applications, but that’s changing, as 3%
those applications – and the technologies that Don't know
underpin them – become smarter about shoppers’ 6%
habits. As this technology matures, mobility will be Base: 157; up to three answers permitted
more commoditized, at which point mobile app
itprotoday.com 7
Download
Download Previous
itprotoday.com 8
Download
Download Previous
Next
to the fact that they need to revamp infrastructure
to take advantage of modern IT practices if they are
Data Center Infrastructure Projects to Be Deployed in 2019
Which of these data center infrastructure projects will you deploy in 2019?
to stay in the game. Part of that process involves
Hybrid cloud
leveraging public clouds for workloads that would
44%
gain by being located on the cloud. Companies Deploying more storage
such as Red Hat and others have been easing 38%
the way by developing blueprints and software Server refresh or deploying new servers
that makes transitioning from an all-on-premises 38%
Consolidating and/or closing existing on-prem data center(s)
approach to a hybrid approach that incorporates
29%
the best of on-premises with the best of cloud Moving workloads from on-prem or colocation to public cloud
Younger organizations that somewhat painlessly attainable.
At the same time, there’s indication that the Adding colocation footprint
24%
or at least in colocation
regulations require some data to be kept on servers Deploying Arm servers
under the company’s control. 4%
Deploying FPGA-accelerated servers
data centers.
It is also important to note the supporting
4%
numbers of 29% for those that are “consolidating
Expanding power and cooling capacity in existing on-prem data center(s)
and/or closing existing on-prem data centers” and 4%
24% that are “moving workloads from on-prem or Intent-based networking
colocation to public cloud.” This indicates cloud- 4%
bound movement, contrasted by 38% planning a Deploying liquid cooling (including rear-door heat exchangers, direct to chip or full immersion)
2%
“server refresh or deploying new servers,” 15%
Upgrading to 400G Ethernet
adding colocation footprint, and 13% adding new 2%
data centers, which at least partly represents a Other
move in the opposite direction. 5%
The 38% who said they had plans to deploy None of the above
4%
more storage also isn’t a surprise given the rise
itprotoday.com Base = 55; respondents indicating personal involvement in data center infrastructure projects in 2019 9
Download
Download Previous
companies planning to
architectures to continue to rise, especially as the Cloud storage (public)
move to the edge begins to take hold. 24%
Scale-out NAS
deploy servers running
—With input from Christine Hall, writer for ITPro
24%
Today and Data Center Knowledge Software-defined storage
15%
architectures to continue There are no true stand-out stats in storage-
related project plans. Private cloud and virtual
Hybrid storage arrays
15%
to rise, especially as the environments share the lead in the list, each
cited by 35% of respondents involved in storage
Data reduction in primary storage
12%
itprotoday.com 10
Download
Download Previous
Previous Next
support on Jan. 14, 2020, it stands to reason that Desktop, a multi-user Windows 10 desktop system will be provided free of charge to any customer
Next migrations from Windows 7 to Windows 10 are on served up over Azure. The system’s multi-user using Windows 7 as a Windows Virtual Desktop.
the radar for the 74% of desktop-involved folks capability means fewer resources are needed. In For companies still running Windows 7 devices
who cited that as a desktop deployment project. addition, Windows 7 Extended Security Updates after that operating system’s end of life, this could
There will be some holdouts that will keep some
machines on Windows 7 for compatibility reasons, FIGURE 6
but with Microsoft’s Desktop App Assure program,
Microsoft plans to help solve that for customers at
Desktop Projects to Be Deployed in 2019
Which of these desktop projects will your company do in 2019?
no additional cost.
At 43%, desktop management/monitoring is Windows 10 deployment/migration
itprotoday.com 11
Download
Download Previous
FIGURE 7
Previous Next
represent a significant cost savings. Security Initiatives to Be Deployed in 2019
Next —With input from Richard Hay, writer for ITPro Which of these security initiatives will your company deploy in 2019?
Today E-mail security/spam filtering
42%
Mobile-device-specific management: EMM, MAM, MDM
Security Initiatives 36%
On one hand, it’s great to see organizations Data loss prevention (DLP)
30%
spending the most on email security/spam filtering Cloud access security broker (CASB)
(42% of respondents with involvement in security 24%
Security information and event management (SIEM)
projects said their companies would deploy such 24%
initiatives this year). That’s certainly a significant way VPN
24%
Vulnerability and to stop one of the biggest threats to the enterprise.
What stood out in a less positive way, however,
Encryption
18%
Log management
18%
security program review have one or think their current efforts are working.
Third-party malware detection/antivirus
18%
Download Previous
Previous Next
risks nonetheless. services. However, microservices and containers delivery,” Tozzi said. These survey results suggest
Next One other notable finding: A lot of time, effort and showcase at a mere 10% and 5%, respectively. “This that enterprises don’t necessarily believe that next-
money is being spent on products and “solutions,” is surprising given that so many of the respondents generation deployment technologies are necessary
but there’s no mention of actual proactive security did indicate an interest in DevOps, and I’ve always for DevOps.
testing. It’s like going to the doctor to get on meds thought of DevOps as going hand-in-hand with Service-oriented architecture, which some
and presumably prevent disease before doing what containers and microservices, since the latter can claimed to have died in 2009, held steady at 15%,
you know needs to be done: increase exercise and help enable continuous integration/continuous higher on the list than both microservices and
fix poor dietary habits. You can have all the products
FIGURE 8
in the world and yet have minimal security because
you’ve failed to acknowledge the things that are Software Development Initiatives to Be Deployed in 2019
creating tangible risks. The thing to remember is Which of the following software-development-related initiatives will your company deploy in 2019?
that just because money is being spent and action
Application modernization
is being taken in and around security, it means little 40%
in terms of resilience and where things truly stand. DevOps
—With input from Kevin Beaver, author and 40%
information security expert Agile development methods
35%
APIs
Software Development Initiatives 35%
Application modernization is tied for first place Cloud application development
among software development-related initiatives 30%
that are expected to be deployed in 2019, cited Custom application development
30%
by 40% of respondents involved in software
Application lifecycle management
development. That’s not surprising, given that 20%
application modernization and updating legacy IoT application development
applications are constant software development 15%
necessities. “I think app modernization has been Service-oriented architecture
15%
on all the lists of IT trends/goals I’ve seen since I
Microservices
started paying attention 10 years ago,” said Chris 10%
Tozzi, author and software development expert. Cloud native
Tied with application modernization is the more 5%
Containers
recently popularized DevOps, cited by 40% of
5%
respondents. DevOps, though not new in concept,
Platform as a service
has been the catalyst for several tools and market 5%
trends, sprouting various managed platform Base = 20; respondents indicating personal involvement with software development-related initiatives in 2019
itprotoday.com 13
Download
Download Previous
FIGURE 9
Previous Next Networking Initiatives to Be Implemented in 2019
containers. The survey suggests that SOA, though
Next not in trend, is actually a consistent initiative in IT. Which of these networking initiatives will your company implement in 2019?
“My big takeaway is that the hype about next- Network management: On-premises
46%
generation technologies doesn’t match adoption Network virtualization
levels for many organizations,” Tozzi said. 29%
DNS/DHCP management and monitoring
25%
Networking Initiatives VPN
Among those planning networking initiatives, 25%
Remote access/branch office connectivity
46% of respondents are likely to implement on- 21%
premises management. This far exceeds other WAN optimization
networking initiatives. One way to look at this 21%
Unified communications applications
number is that businesses are growing, with GDP 18%
growth steadily rising between 2% and 3% in 2019. Network management: Cloud (SaaS)
Offices are expanding, which likely creates more 14%
Software-defined wide-area networking (SD-WAN)
need for on-premises implementation. 14%
At 29%, network virtualization initiatives rank Network management: For cloud networks, virtual private clouds (VPCs)
second. As the survey suggests, cloud computing is 11%
Don't know
maturing. “Network virtualization stands out, since 11%
it is speaks to a path to the cloud,” according to Intent-based network automation
7%
Lawton. Closely behind, at 25%, is DNS/DHCP
Internet performance management
management and monitoring, which falls in line 7%
with the survey’s showing of security concerns IoT infrastructure
7%
among respondents. Mobile network monitoring/optimization
7%
Deployment Models Network analytics and machine learning optimization (Alops)
7%
On-premises software/hardware was the top- Service mesh
ranked deployment model cited by all survey 7%
respondents looking back at 2018 as well as Upgrade/improve cloud connectivity
7%
looking ahead at 2019. In fact, on-premises Container network, integration to DC network fabrics
software/hardware and on-premises appliances 4%
Converged storage and data center network
each appear in the top three responses for both 4%
years. “I would say that on-premises continues to Network as a service for network transport connectivity
be a leading deployment model because of demand 4%
Next-generation network security, microsegmentation, AI-based defenses, etc.
around hybrid cloud,” said Nicole Henderson, 4%
content director for ITPro Today. Larger businesses Other
4%
never fully committed to public cloud, given that
None of the above
itprotoday.com 4%
Base = 28; respondents indicating personal involvement with networking initiatives in 2019
Download
Download Previous
Previous Next
FIGURE 10
Next that would mean handing over critical business Deployment Models 2018
information to an outsourced service. Hybrid cloud 2019
Which of the following deployment models did or will your company use?
offers the ease of public cloud with the security
On-premises software/hardware
of on-premises access. “All of the major cloud
67%
providers are meeting this demand with new
57%
offerings that give enterprise IT a single pane of On-premises appliance
glass across on-premises and cloud workloads,” 51%
Henderson said. 41%
Software as a service climbed to the No. 2 spot Software as a service (cloud applications)
for 2019, cited by 48% of respondents, compared 41%
with only 41% of respondents looking back at 48%
2018. “Growth of software as a service is driven Infrastructure as a service (private cloud)
36%
by several segments, including cloud-based
36%
collaboration suites and web conferencing, as well
Hybrid cloud, where like workloads move between internal and external clouds based on cost or other factors,
as enterprise resource planning (ERP),” Henderson with orchestration
said. Businesses are finding that SaaS is cost- 33%
effective, secure and accessible and, therefore, 40%
worth exploring. Infrastructure as a service (public cloud)
27%
Budget Changes 30%
Eight percent of ITPro Today survey respondents Platform as a service (private cloud)
25%
reported that they expect their 2019 IT budgets to
25%
go down compared with 2018’s. About a quarter
On-premises private cloud
expect it to stay the same. Among those who 21%
expect it to increase, about a third expect it to 23%
increase by more than 10%, 45% predict the Platform as a service (public cloud)
increase will be between 5% and 10%, and 21% 18%
predict an increase of less than 5%. 22%
Sixty percent of all survey respondents plan to Multicloud, where we use both internal and external clouds but without orchestration of workloads
increase security spending in 2019, which makes 16%
sense given that security issues have continued to 21%
Base = all respondents (135 for 2018 question, 141 for 2019 question)
itprotoday.com 15
Download
Download Previous
Previous Next
itprotoday.com 16
Download
Download Previous
Previous Next
Next
APPENDIX
FIGURE 12
Managed services
28% 57% 15%
Networking, on-premises
30% 59% 11%
Security
60% 38% 2%
Servers, on-premises
29% 52% 19%
Software
37% 55% 8%
Staff
32% 57% 12%
Storage, on-premises
35% 50% 15%
itprotoday.com 17
Download
Previous
Next
FIGURE 13
39% 39%
itprotoday.com 18