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After several quarters of understandable uncertainty – which beyond the ramp-up for remote work has created a serious drag on corporate IT spending budgets and planning – spending outlooks are “beginning to perk up” as we head into the second half of 2021, said Michael Nocerino, research analysts at 451 Research. Companies’ willingness to spend on IT products and services is still trending below the levels seen from mid-2014 thru February 2020, reported Nocerino. And while business is growing more stable, at least some aspects of business confidence are still below pre-pandem - ic levels. But in a reversal from last quarter, “more organizations now expect their information technology budgets to increase versus the second half of 2020 by a 15-12 percent margin, a six-point improvement over the net negative in the previous survey,” said Nocerino. No doubt, uncertainty still lingers regarding how the waning pandemic and the resultant refocusing of priorities will impact IT strategy and budgeting. 451’s most recent survey of its panel of IT decision-makers actually saw a small uptick in the number of respondents who said they still “don’t know” which direction IT spending will go for the rest of the year. Even so, “the outlook for the second half of 2021 suggests that companies are anticipat- ing steady improvements in the economy, setting them up for better performance for the second half of the year and into 2022,” Nocerino reported. When asked what categories of products IT departments would be spending on during the next 12 months, four categories rose to the top: business applications (28 percent), security technologies (27 percent), PCs (27 percent) and IT infrastructure (25 percent). Across all these categories, more companies plan to increase spending than decrease, giving every category a net positive outlook for the next 12 months. Only 16 percent of respondents said their companies don’t plan to spend on any of these categories. “Spending across these categories shows companies are expecting to continue to lean on work-from-home, collaboration and data access policies a bit longer while leveraging cloud computing resources,” said Nocerino. In terms of which categories are driving the most IT investment, security technologies (54 percent) and IT infrastructure (54 percent) gained the biggest increases. “Security and infrastructure are foundational technologies, so it’s not unexpected that they would get a greater increase in spending than the software and systems that would be enabled by them,” said Nocerino. Hopes for a Second Half Surge LETTER Planned Spending on IT Categories During Next 12 Months Category Companies Spending On Category Change in Spending Increase Remain Same Decrease Business applications 28% 39% 59% 1% Security technologies 27% 54% 42% 3% PCs 27% 32% 64% 3% IT infrastructure 25% 54% 43% 3% App development tools 16% 41% 52% 5% Outsourced IT services 16% 43% 51% 6% Mobile devices 15% 27% 65% 5% Not spending on any of these in next 12 months 16% Source: 451 Research Martin Vilaboy Editor-in-Chief martin@bekabusinessmedia.com Gerald Baldino Senior Editor gerald@bekabusinessmedia.com Bruce Christian Senior Editor bruce@bekabusinessmedia.com Percy Zamora Art Director percy@bekabusinessmedia.com Rob Schubel Digital Manager rob@bekabusinessmedia.com Jen Vilaboy Ad Production Director jen@bekabusinessmedia.com Berge Kaprelian Group Publisher berge@bekabusinessmedia.com (480) 503-0770 Anthony Graffeo Publisher anthony@bekabusinessmedia.com (203) 304-8547 Nazal Parvin Associate Publisher nazal@bekabusinessmedia.com (415) 516-7053 Beka Business Media Berge Kaprelian President and CEO Corporate Headquarters 10115 E Bell Road, Suite 107 - #517 Scottsdale, Arizona 85260 Voice: 480.503.0770 Email: berge@bekabusinessmedia.com © 2021 Beka Business Media, All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in any form or medium without express written permission of Beka Business Media is prohibited. ChannelVision and the ChannelVision logo are trademarks of Beka Business Media 6 CHANNEL V ISION | May 2021