Survey: Tough Choices Ahead for Cash-Strapped IT Departments in 2015

AUSTIN, TX--(Marketwired - Jan 21, 2015) - Spiceworks, the professional network for IT, today announced the results of a new survey examining the 2015 spending priorities of IT professionals in North America and EMEA as well as their view on growth within their organizations. On average, IT professionals surveyed plan to invest $291,062 on IT products and services this year. Only 33 percent of respondents expect budgets to increase over 2014 and even fewer, 25 percent, say their organizations will increase IT department headcount this year. Despite strained resources, 2015 will be the year many IT professionals refresh aging hardware and software across their organizations as "end of life" issues become a reality for IT departments. "Over the years, IT professionals have become accustomed to doing more with less and 2015 will be no exception," said Sanjay Castelino, VP of Marketing at Spiceworks. "Aging PC hardware and the impending countdown to Windows Server 2003 end of life will force IT professionals to get creative this year when it comes to spending the resources they do have and choosing the right technology investments that will help increase employee productivity and drive their organizations forward." Spiceworks' " 2015 IT Budget Report" found that end of life is a top reason companies plan to spend on new IT hardware, software and services in 2015 with 67 percent of IT professionals citing this issue as the driving force behind new purchases. Over 50 percent of desktops and laptops in the Spiceworks network are more than four years old, and 20 percent are more than seven years old. Perhaps an even bigger hurdle for IT departments will be the end of life and recommended migration deadline for Windows Server 2003 on July 14, 2015. Sixty-five percent of companies in the Spiceworks network have at least one instance of Windows Server 2003 running in their environment, meaning a majority of IT professionals will be racing to migrate in advance of Microsoft's deadline. Additional highlights from the survey include: IT professionals prioritize hardware investments in 2015

• IT professionals plan to spend 41 percent of their 2015 IT budget on hardware solutions including new desktops, laptops, networking and server solutions.
• IT professionals will spend an average of 20 percent of their hardware budgets on desktops, 19 percent on servers, and 15 percent on laptops. Additionally, 10 percent will be spent on networking, eight percent on external storage, and seven percent on tablets/mobile.

Software investments fall closely behind hardware in terms of priority

• IT professionals plan to spend 33 percent of their 2015 budget on software projects this year.
• IT professionals will spend an average of 17 percent of their software budgets on operating systems, 16 percent on productivity solutions, 14 percent on virtualization, 11 percent on backup/disaster recovery, 10 percent on databases, nine percent on CRM/ERP, and eight percent on security.
• Of the new software investments planned for 2015, 24 percent of purchases will focus on virtualization and 23 percent will be investments in new operating systems to replace end of life systems. Backup/disaster recovery follows closely behind at 22 percent. Not surprisingly, most software spending in 2015 will be in recurring investments.

Online backup and recovery leads new cloud purchases

• IT professionals will spend 12 percent of their annual budgets on hosted/cloud-based projects in 2015. Of that, 18 percent will be spent on email hosting, 16 percent on web hosting, 13 percent on online backup/recovery, nine percent on productivity solutions, seven percent on application hosting, and six percent on industry-specific applications.
• Among those planning to deploy new cloud-based solutions, online backup/recovery leads the pack followed closely by productivity solutions.

Managed services see fair portion of budget dollars

• IT professionals plan to spend 10 percent of their annual budgets on managed services this year.
• Nineteen percent of the allocated budget in this area will be spent on IT services, 16 percent on managed services consulting, 16 percent on connectivity/bandwidth, 14 percent on hosting, 10 percent on storage/backup/archiving, and nine percent on email/collaboration.
• Among those planning to use a new managed service, storage/backup/archiving leads the way with 14 percent of overall purchases. The majority of recurring managed services investments will be in connectivity/bandwidth.

Methodology The survey was conducted in September and October of 2014 and included over 600 respondents from North America and EMEA. Respondents are among the more than 6 million IT professionals who use Spiceworks and represent a variety of company sizes including small-to-medium businesses as well as enterprises. Respondents come from a variety of industries including manufacturing, healthcare, non-profits, education, government, IT service providers and finance. More at www.spiceworks.com