Tech spending set to boom

Global analyst firm CCS Insight has revealed the findings of its annual survey of IT investment by senior business leaders. The survey explored spending and adoption plans in a range of areas that have become vital during the pandemic. They include cloud computing, remote work and collaboration, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, security, trust and application development.

The survey polled more than 730 senior executives, predominantly in large organizations in the US and Europe from a range of industries. Respondents held director or above roles, with 60% holding C-level positions, including 20% of the survey in CEO roles.

Highlights include:

Two-thirds expect to increase IT budgets in 2021, despite a recession, with security the top priority. Businesses expect to continue their investments in cloud computing and remote collaboration as they have done during the pandemic. But as the crisis and companies' IT strategies shift to the next phase, security will be the biggest beneficiary in 2021. Cloud security in particular is now top of mind for most decision-makers, and security is also flagged as a priority in collaboration tools, investments in AI, and factors that determine trust in technology suppliers.

Attitudes to remote work have changed dramatically. The survey found that 34% of senior leaders expect more than half their workforce to work mainly from home post-Covid-19. This compares with just 15% prior to the pandemic. The shift to remote working has also meant that collaboration technology — and particularly video-meeting technology — has become mission critical. The survey found that Microsoft Teams dominates the market, deployed by 46% of respondents' companies.

Cloud migrations are accelerating, and Microsoft Azure is the biggest beneficiary. The shift to remote work, the need to rapidly move operations online to maintain business continuity, and the elasticity of cloud services proving an attractive way to address spikes in demand during Covid-19 have all meant that cloud computing continues to grow rapidly. The proportion of businesses with over half their IT workloads hosted in the cloud is expected to double to 56% within the next year. Although most businesses are embracing a multicloud strategy, according to senior leaders, Microsoft Azure was cited as the most-used and trusted public cloud, ahead of IBM, Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services.

Artificial intelligence is entering a new chapter as businesses gain operational maturity. A year ago, most firms were running trials with machine learning, but during the pandemic, many turned to the technology in areas such as chat bots, contact centre assistance and demand forecasting. Over 80% of survey respondents are now trialling the technology or have put it into production, up from 55% in our 2019 survey. In addition, 58% of those surveyed plan to increase investment. As more companies become operationally dependent on the technology, they are encountering new challenges associated with the risks of AI. Security is now the biggest challenge organizations face in this area, and more than 80% of respondents said they are concerned about ethical risks stemming from the uses of AI.

Low-code application development is now vital for developers. Software development has become crucial during the pandemic; 46% of organizations now use low-code tools as part of their application development processes. Respondents list Microsoft Power Platform and Google App Maker as the most popular tools in this area.

Insights into C-Level Decision-Making

Nick McQuire, Senior Vice President of Enterprise Research at CCS Insight, said, "Our survey this year of predominantly C-suite executives reveals fascinating insights into many of the most important aspects of technology transformation that will shape enterprise strategies in the coming year. Not only have we witnessed huge change in areas such as cloud transformation, remote collaboration, app development and machine learning over the past year, senior leaders expect even more change in 2021 as they push ahead with their digital investments".

He added "An enduring feature of the pandemic has been the elevated importance customers now place on their trust in technology suppliers, particularly cloud providers. In this respect, security and trust are among the top priorities for senior leaders as we move into the next phase of the crisis. Trust and security are clearly important themes that will shape the market".

On the shift to remote working, one of the standout areas of the survey, Angela Ashenden, Principal Analyst Workplace Transformation at CCS Insight, noted, "Clearly the shift to remote working has dramatically influenced businesses' perspectives on the way we work in the long term, and this is affecting the importance they place on tools to enable collaboration between remote workers. As offices start to reopen, organizations are now exploring the implications of a hybrid working model in which remote working remains the norm, but some staff return to the office. This will be a major focus area in the coming months".