Security concerns are one of the major driving factors in IT budget increases this year. In fact, according to Spiceworks’ “State of IT Report”, 1 in 4 companies plan to increase IT spending due to a recent security incident.
This report is based on a survey of over 1,000 business technology buyers in North America and Europe. The survey was conducted in July of 2019, anticipating trends for the following year.
As we head into 2020, IT decision makers are increasing their IT budgets by 44%.
Where will IT Budgets be Invested in 2020?
A couple key, interesting insights:
- As mentioned previously, 44% of businesses plan to increase spending, up from 38% in 2019
- In terms of tech trends, AI powered IT projects are anticipated to triple by 2021. An example of an AI powered project might be Fortify, an advanced security solution fueled by AI that evolves with your network.
- 2/3 of enterprise businesses (5,000+ employees) plan to deploy 5G by 2021
Where are North American Organizations Spending their IT dollars?
- 34%: Hardware (desktops, laptops, and servers)
- 31%: Software (operating systems – migrating away from Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 as the end of service date was 1/14/2020. According to a recent security study from Spiceworks, 25% of businesses plan to take their chances and upgrade after the deadline, due to lack of resources.
- 22%: Hosted/cloud-based services
- 14% Managed services (Managed hosting, managed hardware support, and managed storage/backup will account for the biggest portions of managed service spend in 2020.)
Overall, the State of IT study found that the smallest organizations were most likely to invest their software budgets in operating system upgrade while Enterprise level organizations were most likely to spend more on “virtualization, database management, and communications software”.
The common thread across all businesses was the challenge of keeping IT infrastructure up to date, according to 50% of respondents. Other obstacles included:
- 49% balancing tasks
- 46% upgrading software
- 39% following security best practices
- 32% convincing business leaders to prioritize IT
The good news is that there has been a shift in security awareness.
Survey respondents shared “We’ve been bombarded with security news. It’s easier to convince the higher ups now of the need for it. Security is something regular people are talking about. Security is no longer a theoretical what if; it’s an actual experience companies are having so they are shifting toward prioritizing it.”
If Your Organization Needs Cyber Security Assistance
Just contact our support team today to see how Ontech Systems can help you strengthen your network security. Give us a call at 262-522-8560 or submit a request online and let us know how we can help.
Schedule a Security Assessment
A good first step is to begin by scheduling a security assessment so you can identify where risks are and make an educated decision based on what solutions you are truly in need of.
Ultimately, you don’t know what risks you’re faced with until you do a security assessment and for a one-time, fixed fee, you can run a security assessment and develop an action. Based on your assessment results, we can prioritize vulnerabilities into high, medium, and low risks to give you a comprehensive look at your network security.
While a security assessment isn’t a mandatory step, it is a great way to take that first proactive step toward securing your network.
