July 20, 2009 - 3:58am
According to a survey of 100 chief information officers carried out by UBS, U.S. and European IT budgets are expected to drop 2 % over the next year, less than the 5 % decline expected three months ago. Meanwhile, the Swiss bank`s quarterly survey showed that U.S. CIOs were less pessimistic, expecting a 1.3 % decline in budgets, while their European counterparts predicted a 3.4 % drop.
The survey showed that the pace of decline in hardware spending is seen slowing as companies are gradually moved to replace aging personal computer systems that are three to five years old, with buying activity gathering pace in mid-2010. It said the CIOs expected to spend most on Hewlett-Packard hardware and least on equipment from Sun, which is being bought by Oracle. Personal computer maker Dell's pricing was seen as the most aggressive in the last six months.
Furthermore, 77 % of respondents in the UBS survey said they expected to buy or evaluate Cisco's Unified Computing System, announced in March, in the next 18 months, seeing it as more likely to succeed than HP's rival offerings. Besides, Juniper's rival switching equipment is also seen as gaining ground, with 11 % of CIOs planning to deploy its EX LAN switch, which currently has less than 1 % share of the Cisco-dominated market.
In software, the CIOs said they generally expected to spend less across a range of vendors, although they would likely spend more on Microsoft, SAP, Citrix and Oracle, in that order.
In IT services, discretionary spending trends were seen meliorating in the United States but worsening in Europe. Services that lower costs and provide a quick return on investment still took priority.
The survey showed that the pace of decline in hardware spending is seen slowing as companies are gradually moved to replace aging personal computer systems that are three to five years old, with buying activity gathering pace in mid-2010. It said the CIOs expected to spend most on Hewlett-Packard hardware and least on equipment from Sun, which is being bought by Oracle. Personal computer maker Dell's pricing was seen as the most aggressive in the last six months.
Furthermore, 77 % of respondents in the UBS survey said they expected to buy or evaluate Cisco's Unified Computing System, announced in March, in the next 18 months, seeing it as more likely to succeed than HP's rival offerings. Besides, Juniper's rival switching equipment is also seen as gaining ground, with 11 % of CIOs planning to deploy its EX LAN switch, which currently has less than 1 % share of the Cisco-dominated market.
In software, the CIOs said they generally expected to spend less across a range of vendors, although they would likely spend more on Microsoft, SAP, Citrix and Oracle, in that order.
In IT services, discretionary spending trends were seen meliorating in the United States but worsening in Europe. Services that lower costs and provide a quick return on investment still took priority.