April 2006 IT Priorities Report

In the April 2006 survey of IT priorities of medium to large U.S. organizations, IT decision makers report spending more on software than other solutions--it's the #1 priority in current IT budgets--followed by hardware and networking solutions. Software infrastructure initiatives remain the dominant IT budget item among project plans 12 months out, a position held for the past four months. Hardware and networking planned spends round out the top three usual suspects. Statistical analysis of the past three months show that hardware planning is shifting downward; we'll be monitoring this trend over the next few months.

CNET Network's IT Priorities Research Program surveys technology decision makers in medium and large organizations each month and asks them about their current and planned IT spending. The study is designed to provide a near-real-time snapshot of business technology project priorities over two timeframes: now and 12 months in the future. CNET has been publishing these data since November 2002.