Source: Foundry (an IDG, Inc. company)

CIO Magazine Tech Poll Shows Acceleration of Economic Recovery Within IT

IT Leaders Focus on IT Infrastructure Investments to Drive Innovation

FRAMINGHAM, MA--(Marketwire - February 22, 2011) - IDG's CIO, the executive-level IT media brand providing insight into business technology leadership, reveals the CIO Magazine Tech Poll results for January 2011. The poll findings paint a positive picture for economic recovery as participants highlight specific investment goals and increased spending on technology categories.

Results from more than 300 top IT executive respondents show that investments enabling business process innovations continue to be their top priority (36% in 2011 and 33% in 2010), followed by lower business operation costs (25%), creating top line revenue growth (21%),and managing IT infrastructure more efficiently (17%).

"We noticed in these findings how the stabilizing economy is pushing revenue growth even higher as a key focus area for CIOs," said Maryfran Johnson, editor in chief, CIO magazine and events. "This is an important strategic shift for CIOs as IT's contribution to business growth moves to a higher priority than cost-cutting and streamlining, which was a primary focus last year."

While the top three technologies currently in production -- mobile/wireless, server virtualization and ERP -- remain the same year-over-year, the results demonstrate a significant increase in the number of participants implementing these technologies, showing additional IT spending. One other technology shift can be seen in investments in storage virtualization which climbed steeply, from 25% in 2010 to 45% in 2011.

Top Technologies in Production   2011 2010
Mobile/Wireless   58% 48%
Server Virtualization   56% 42%
ERP   45% 39%

Over the next twelve months budgets will increase for many technologies, especially those that are actively being researched by participants. Technologies that respondents report an investment increase are cloud computing services (61%), business intelligence and analytics (52%), server virtualization (50%) and desktop PC virtualization (50%); where as printing/output services will see the most decrease (21%).

"The CIO Magazine Tech Poll showcases what I have been hearing from CIOs at our events, IT budgets are stabilizing and growing, allowing projects to be completed and new technologies implemented," said Adam Dennison, associate publisher, CIO. "IT executives continue to investigate ways to improve efficiencies and increase knowledge which is confirmed with the cloud computing and business intelligence and analytics spending increases."

To review the full results contact Adam Dennison, Associate Publisher, CIO at adennison@cio.com.

About CIO Magazine Tech Poll
The CIO Magazine Tech Poll is conducted twice a year, among heads of IT, to gauge which technology areas are the focus of IT in the coming year and to measure the direction of spending within those areas. The current CIO Magazine Tech Poll was conducted between January 6, 2011 and January 18, 2011 through the CIO LinkedIn Forum. Results are based on 305 respondents who indicated they are the top IT executive at their organization or business unit. The margin of error on a sample of a sample size of 305 is +/- 5.6%.

Trending data references a similar CIO magazine survey conducted in January 2010 among 213 IT leaders.

About CIO
CIO produces award-winning content and community resources for information technology executives and leaders thriving and prospering in this fast-paced era of business, as well as create opportunities for information technology and consumer marketers to reach them. The CIO portfolio includes CIO.com, CIO magazine (launched in 1987), CIO Executive Programs and the CIO Executive Council. CIO properties provide business technology leaders with analysis and insight on information technology trends and a keen understanding of IT's role in achieving business goals. The U.S. edition of the magazine and website are recipients of more than 200 awards to date, including the American Society of Business Publication Editor's Top B-to-B Magazine since 2000 and Website of the Year in 2010 and two Grand Neals from the Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Awards. CIO websites and printed publications appear in more than 25 countries, including Australia, Canada, Finland, India and Sweden. CIO Executive Programs -- a series of face-to-face conferences including the CIO 100 Awards & Symposium™ -- provide educational and networking opportunities for pre-qualified corporate and government leaders. The CIO Executive Council is a professional organization of CIOs created to serve as an unbiased and trusted peer advisory group. CIO is published by IDG Enterprise, a subsidiary of International Data Group (IDG), the world's leading media, events, and research company. Company information is available at www.idgenterprise.com.

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