Johanna Ambrosio, CIO and Contributing Writer of CIO.com, just published an update based on this year’s State of the CIO survey. Despite economic uncertainty, IT budgets will likely hold steady over the next couple of years, with CIOs reporting key investments in security, analytics, automation, cloud, and IT talent. Budget planning during uncertain economic times is never CIOs’ favorite activity. But the next eighteen months aren’t shaping up to be as challenging as some may fear. For the most part, budgets are holding steady or growing in the single digits, with continued investments in security, analytics, and the cloud, among other areas.

Gartner predicts 2023 IT spending will grow 5.1% compared to this year, says John-David Lovelock, distinguished VP analyst at the firm. “We haven’t changed our forecast in three quarters,” he says, noting that the US gross domestic product (GDP) is, technically, already in recession territory and has been for the past six months. He predicts continued GDP softening over the next three years, with minimal, if any, effect on IT spending.

According to this year’s State of the CIO survey, cybersecurity and risk management are the top investment areas for 45% of IT leader respondents. Another key item to budget for is IT staff. Of those CIOs reporting an increase in budget this year, 48% said that increase was due to a need to invest in new talent and skills. Still, approximately 20% of all IT jobs are open these days, with a “massive” migration occurring from corporate IT to tech providers, Gartner’s Lovelock says. “We don’t see an end to that for more than five years.”

To read the full article: CIO.com