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Despite downturn, CIOs focus on IT initiatives

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CIOL Bureau
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CALIFORNIA, USA: According to a national survey from Robert Half Technology, a leading provider of information technology professionals on a project and full-time basis, information security and virtualization will stay in the spotlight of future projects, despite the downturn.

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Despite a challenging economy, seven out of 10 chief information officers (CIOs) interviewed said their companies will invest in information technology (IT) initiatives in the next 12 months. Information security topped the list of projects executives expect their firms to invest in, with 43 per cent of the response, followed by virtualization (28 per cent) and data center efficiency (27 per cent) as noted in a press report.

The survey was based on more than 1,400 telephone interviews with CIOs from a random sample of U.S. companies with 100 or more employees and was developed by Robert Half Technology. As per the findings, information security virtualization and data centre efficiency rule the roost.

Technology executives in the financial services and transportation sectors cited security most often, with 59 per cent and 58 per cent of the responses, respectively. As to virtualization, added budget pressures are forcing many companies to focus on more cost-effective solutions for servers, storage and networking.

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Virtualization tools enable greater consolidation, lower hardware costs, and reduced space and power requirements. Nearly four in 10 (39 per cent) CIOs at large enterprises with over 1,000 employees and midsize ones too with 500 to 999 employees plan to invest in this area.

Among other areas of interest were Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) (26 per cent), Software as a Service (SaaS) (26 per cent), Green IT (20 per cent), business intelligence (19 per cent), social networking (18 per cent), Web 2.0 (17 per cent) and outsourcing (16 per cent).

"Although times are lean, many companies are finding that they can't afford to postpone IT investments that lead to increased security, efficiencies or revenues," said Dave Willmer, executive director or Robert Half Technology in a news report. "Organizations also are trying to make sure they are prepared for growth when conditions improve, and enhancing their IT infrastructure is part of that process."