IT spending priorities

point to cyber, cloud

and data
BY JOHN MOORE, TECHTARGET INDUSTRY EDITOR
In this eGuide:
Cyber and cloud top the
charts
Simplifying cloud
architecture
Deploying multi-cloud
networking
Data management
emerges as priority
Identity management
priorities: MFA and Zero
trust
Service providers plug
cyber, cloud gaps
Half of IT pros cite budget
increases
1 2023 IT SPENDING PRIORITIES
Cybersecurity and cloud, unsurprisingly, rank as tech professionals' top IT spending
categories, but data management joins those perennial investment drivers on this year's
urgent to-do list.
TechTarget's global 2023 "IT Priorities Survey" polled more than 1,600 respondents, about
half of which work for North American companies. For the North American contingent, 63%
cited cybersecurity as a broad technology initiative that has become more important over
the past two years -- making it the No. 1 choice out of two dozen categories. Cloud --
including compute, storage and applications -- ranked second on the list, with nearly half of
respondents pointing to that technology. Ransomware protection, a subset of cybersecurity,
placed third.
Data management and governance ranked fourth among the top-rated IT initiatives in North
America and edged ransomware protection for third worldwide. In contrast, big data
management ranked outside the top ten investment drivers in the 2020 "IT Priorities
Survey."
TechTarget's poll included respondents in Asia Pacific (APAC); Europe, the Middle East and
Africa (EMEA); Latin America (LATAM); and North America (NA).
In this eGuide:

Cyber and cloud top the

charts

Simplifying cloud
architecture

Deploying multi-cloud
networking

Data management
emerges as priority

Identity management
priorities: MFA and Zero
trust

Service providers plug

cyber, cloud gaps Other survey findings include the following:

Half of IT pros cite budget

increases • In cybersecurity, multifactor authentication (MFA) and zero-trust identity topped the
list of identity-related initiatives scheduled for deployment in the next 12 months. In
the information management discipline, data governance, data analytics/business
intelligence (BI) and data quality were the top areas for near-term deployment.
• Cybersecurity and cloud migration were the two functions for which respondents said
they were most inclined to use third-party partners such as MSPs.

2 2023 IT SPENDING PRIORITIES

In this eGuide:
Cyber and cloud top the
charts
Simplifying cloud
architecture
Deploying multi-cloud
networking
Data management
emerges as priority
Identity management
priorities: MFA and Zero
trust
Service providers plug
cyber, cloud gaps
Half of IT pros cite budget
increases
3 2023 IT SPENDING PRIORITIES
• About half of the North American IT professionals polled expect technology budgets to
increase in 2023 compared with last year. Less than 10% of those polled in North
America and worldwide expect budgets to shrink this year.
CYBER AND CLOUD TOP THE CHARTS
Cybersecurity and cloud are often mentioned in the same breath when it comes to key
spending areas. In 2022, a survey conducted by TechTarget's Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG)
identified cybersecurity as the leading technology sector for increased investment, followed
by public cloud applications. Those technologies also ranked first and second in ESG's 2021
spending plans survey, but with cloud ahead of security.
The 2023 TechTarget "IT Priorities Survey" keeps that run going. Cybersecurity remains a
pressing concern for IT managers and business leaders. Heightened legal exposure, as
exemplified by the Uber data breach coverup, has made cybersecurity a board-level agenda
item. The emergence of supply chain attacks and the increasing volume of reported
vulnerabilities also help elevate cybersecurity as an IT investment.
Cloud's endurance, meanwhile, reflects its role as the core technology of many enterprise IT
strategies. Indeed, just over half of the survey respondents have adopted a cloud-first
approach. Another push comes from digital transformation initiatives, which typically rely on
the cloud platforms as change agents.
In this eGuide:
The nature of cloud projects, however, is shifting from mass migration to refinement and
Cyber and cloud top the
optimization.
charts

Simplifying cloud
architecture SIMPLIFYING CLOUD ARCHITECTURE

Deploying multi-cloud
networking
Data management
emerges as priority
Identity management
priorities: MFA and Zero
trust
Service providers plug
cyber, cloud gaps
Half of IT pros cite budget
increases
Vishal Saxena, CTO at Canoe Intelligence, has seen this shift firsthand. When Saxena arrived
at the New York-based company, it was already in the AWS cloud, but the architecture had
evolved over time and needed an overhaul. Canoe, which provides AI technology for
extracting data from investment documents, used a mix of AWS EC2, S3, RDS, MySQL,
DynamoDB, Ansible, Elasticsearch and various configuration tools.
"We are talking about a number of components [and] a significant amount of operational
overhead required to deploy new infrastructure," Saxena said. "How do you rearchitect and
optimize?
Canoe embarked on a project to simplify its architecture, removing redundant components
and adopting infrastructure as code (IaC). As for IaC, Canoe uses HashiCorp's Terraform,
which automates cloud provisioning and management. Canoe's pursuit of IaC makes it
somewhat unusual. Only 11% of the North American IT professionals polled in TechTarget's
survey said they plan to implement that technology in the next 12 months -- a bit below the
global average of 13%.

4 2023 IT SPENDING PRIORITIES

In this eGuide:
As a result of Canoe's AWS reboot, the company's developers can deploy cloud
Cyber and cloud top the
infrastructure and code changes within minutes versus hours -- or, potentially, days, Saxena
charts
noted. Developers also can devote more time to feature development. And, as a financial
Simplifying cloud kicker, the simplified architecture reduces Canoe's monthly cloud infrastructure costs by
architecture
25%.
Deploying multi-cloud
networking
DEPLOYING MULTI-CLOUD NETWORKING
Data management
emerges as priority
Improving an existing cloud deployment was also the focus at Covetrus, an animal health
Identity management technology company based in Portland, Maine. The company operates a born-in-the-cloud
priorities: MFA and Zero
trust veterinary pharmacy business, distributes veterinary supplies and offers practice
management software.
Service providers plug
cyber, cloud gaps
Stephen Crowley, CIO of global technology solutions at Covetrus, said the company's cloud
Half of IT pros cite budget and e-commerce environment became increasingly complex as the company grew. "In the
increases
early days of our company, we encouraged developers to innovate and explore tools as they
developed cloud-native applications in AWS, Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure,"
he said.

But Covetrus needed to interconnect the various apps with each other and with e-commerce
systems.

5 2023 IT SPENDING PRIORITIES

In this eGuide:
Cyber and cloud top the
charts
Simplifying cloud
architecture
Deploying multi-cloud
networking
Data management
emerges as priority
Identity management
priorities: MFA and Zero
trust
Service providers plug
cyber, cloud gaps
Half of IT pros cite budget
increases
6 2023 IT SPENDING PRIORITIES
"In that kind of petri dish environment, you quickly can get to chaos," Crowley said. "We
started connecting everything -- multi-clouds, multi-commerce -- with cloud networking
tunnels. We became really complex to the point that we were brittle."
Covetrus deployed Aviatrix's multi-cloud networking
We started connecting
software, which made it possible for the company to
everything -- multi-
move away from layers of individual cloud
clouds, multi-
networking connectors. The approach takes "all the
spaghetti out," providing a single entry point for
commerce -- with cloud
connecting the company's cloud and commerce
networking tunnels. We
environments, Crowley said. Simplified networking
became really complex
to the point that we
makes it easier to diagnose and troubleshoot the
company's cloud ecosystem, while also facilitating were brittle.
product launches, including a new B2B commerce
capability, he added.
Stephen Crowley, CIO
of global technology
The TechTarget survey suggested IT managers will be solutions, Covetrus
turning more frequently to multi-cloud networking
software. That technology ranked third on the list of
North American cloud, edge and application-centric networking initiatives slated for
In this eGuide:
deployment within 12 months. Only software-defined WAN and edge networking were rated
Cyber and cloud top the
higher.
charts

Simplifying cloud Cloud supports data projects

architecture
Cloud projects helped pave the way for data initiatives at Covetrus and Canoe.
Deploying multi-cloud
networking
Covetrus's multi-cloud network infrastructure, for example, helps the company manage and
Data management distribute data, while also eliminating costly redundancy.
emerges as priority

Identity management "The architecture that we've moved to is one where we leverage Snowflake," Crowley said.
priorities: MFA and Zero
trust
"At the heart of what we've done, instead of having data that sits in Azure, AWS and GCP --
or some data store at a private cloud or in some on-premises data center -- we've taken the
Service providers plug
position to move everything to Snowflake."
cyber, cloud gaps

Half of IT pros cite budget Centralized data, coupled with cloud connectivity, boosts the company's ability to deliver
increases
prescriptions and provide data sets to help clinicians execute their daily tasks.

Canoe's cloud project, meanwhile, helped bring Snowflake into its ecosystem. The
company's retooled infrastructure makes it easier to use Amazon Managed Workflows for
Apache Airflow, which orchestrates Snowflake data pipelines.

7 2023 IT SPENDING PRIORITIES

In this eGuide:
DATA MANAGEMENT EMERGES AS PRIORITY
Cyber and cloud top the
charts
Data management's emergence among the top-ranked IT priorities comes as AI and machine
Simplifying cloud learning (ML) appear set to enter the mainstream. But the effective adoption of those
architecture technologies depends on data -- a requisite that may explain the heightened interest
Deploying multi-cloud reflected in the TechTarget survey.
networking
"A lot of the time, when we talk about [AI/ML] products or services, what comes to mind is
Data management
emerges as priority AI algorithms under the hood," said Nurtekin Savas, head of enterprise data science at
Capital One, which deploys ML for anomaly detection, among other use cases. "But what's
Identity management
priorities: MFA and Zero also critically, equally and sometimes even more important, is the data itself."
trust

Service providers plug

cyber, cloud gaps
Half of IT pros cite budget
increases
In North America, data governance surfaced as the No. 1 information management
technology scheduled for deployment in the next 12 months. Data governance sets
standards and policies for managing the availability, usability and security of enterprise data.
Data analytics/BI platforms and data quality rounded out the top three in TechTarget's poll.

8 2023 IT SPENDING PRIORITIES

In this eGuide:

Cyber and cloud top the

charts

Simplifying cloud
architecture

Deploying multi-cloud
networking

Data management
emerges as priority

Identity management
priorities: MFA and Zero
trust

Service providers plug

cyber, cloud gaps

Half of IT pros cite budget

increases Adopting best practices for ML data

"High-quality machine learning starts with clean data," Savas said.

Accordingly, data cleansing and the quality of metadata -- models need to know what data
they're using and why -- rank among the best practices for developing AI/ML products, Savas
noted. So, too, does standardization.

9 2023 IT SPENDING PRIORITIES

In this eGuide:
Cyber and cloud top the
charts
Simplifying cloud
architecture
Deploying multi-cloud
networking
Data management
emerges as priority
Identity management
priorities: MFA and Zero
trust
Service providers plug
cyber, cloud gaps
Half of IT pros cite budget
increases
10
"Standardizing data elements is critical," he said. "The more standardized it is, the faster and
more efficiently we can use it."
Standardization across different data sets means data scientists can more quickly join them
together to create a bigger data set for use in ML models. Combining data sets lets models
gather a more holistic understanding of the user, especially when used in deep learning
architectures such as transformers, Savas said. "It's one of those things that we're focused
on," he added.
Other important practices include monitoring -- an aspect of data governance -- to watch for
changes in the data that can stem from a shift in consumer trends, macroeconomic events or
business process changes, Savas said. Monitoring can flag stale AI/ML models that need
updating. When monitoring detects a change point -- i.e., an abrupt variation in data -- a
developer can be alerted to retrain and redeploy the model.
Savas also emphasized discoverability as a key data tenet. The cleanest, most standardized
data will do an organization little good if users can't find it. Data security and discovery
ranked fourth on the list of North American respondents' information management
priorities.
2023 IT SPENDING PRIORITIES
In this eGuide:
IDENTITY MANAGEMENT PRIORITIES: MFA AND ZERO TRUST
Cyber and cloud top the
charts
Stolen credentials were among the top five data breach types in Verizon's "2022 Data Breach
Simplifying cloud Investigations Report." Such attacks have increased interest in identity-related security
architecture measures. Nearly half of TechTarget's North American survey respondents identified MFA as
Deploying multi-cloud their top deployment priority in that security category. Zero-trust identity ranked second,
networking with 39% of those polled citing that technology.
Data management
emerges as priority

Identity management
priorities: MFA and Zero
trust

Service providers plug

cyber, cloud gaps

Half of IT pros cite budget

increases

11 2023 IT SPENDING PRIORITIES

In this eGuide:
Cyber and cloud top the
charts
Simplifying cloud
architecture
Deploying multi-cloud
networking
Data management
emerges as priority
Identity management
priorities: MFA and Zero
trust
Service providers plug
cyber, cloud gaps
Half of IT pros cite budget
increases
12
Pete Hoff, CISO and global vice president of security and managed services at Wursta, a
technology advisory firm in Austin, Texas, said his company is enabling MFA for a large
number of clients. Wursta, a Google premier partner, specializes in cloud and digital
workspace design.
Wursta's SMB clients may need some encouragement to use MFA. "The vast majority of
customers tell us they are concerned with implementing the solution," he said. "They think it
is difficult."
But, in the Google ecosystem, implementation is simple, Hoff said. With Google Workspace,
for instance, MFA is an option that can be switched on from the admin console. He
recommends MFA enforcement as well as enablement. An enforcement option, which
prevents access to Workspace without MFA, can be activated immediately or scheduled for
activation after an initial MFA-optional period.
Hoff also suggested organizations follow up on MFA with a zero-trust offering such as
Google's BeyondCorp Enterprise (BCE). Hoff said this technology provides user access
context across three levels: the user, the device and the sensitivity of the data to be
accessed. BCE lets organizations break out those levels separately and create access rules for
each, based on context, Hoff noted. Google's zero-trust product can also protect workloads
in AWS and Azure in some cases.
2023 IT SPENDING PRIORITIES
In this eGuide:
SERVICE PROVIDERS PLUG CYBER, CLOUD GAPS
Cyber and cloud top the
charts
As organizations pursue their IT priorities, they often do so with staffing constraints. External
Simplifying cloud partners, however, play a staff augmentation role. The IT professionals TechTarget surveyed
architecture identified cybersecurity as the No. 1 technology investment that would likely involve a
Deploying multi-cloud managed service or other third-party provider, with about a third of the respondents citing
networking cybersecurity as where they might need outside help. Cloud management/migration was No.
Data management 2 on the help-wanted list.
emerges as priority

Identity management
priorities: MFA and Zero
trust

Service providers plug

cyber, cloud gaps

Half of IT pros cite budget

increases

13 2023 IT SPENDING PRIORITIES

In this eGuide:
Cyber and cloud top the
charts
Simplifying cloud
architecture
Deploying multi-cloud
networking
Data management
emerges as priority
Identity management
priorities: MFA and Zero
trust
Service providers plug
cyber, cloud gaps
Half of IT pros cite budget
increases
14
IT departments frequently lack technical depth in cybersecurity and also face a dearth of
cloud skills, making outsourcing a common remedy.
In the case of Canoe's cloud architecture redesign, the company hired ClearScale, an AWS
consulting partner based in San Francisco, for assistance. ClearScale performed an audit of
Canoe's AWS environment and started the company down the IaC track.
Saxena said Canoe had some in-house expertise to take on the reimagining of its AWS cloud.
But the overhaul would have taken a year, based strictly on Canoe's resources. Additional
capacity from ClearScale cut that timeline in half. And ClearScale's background in cloud
migration and optimization minimized the project's risk, he added.
"We increased the chances of success by leveraging someone who had done modernization
before," Saxena said.
For Covetrus, working with Aviatrix established a partnership that got its multi-cloud
networking initiative quickly underway.
"Within 30 days, we had mapped out an architecture, working together, that we all felt
would work," Crowley said.
2023 IT SPENDING PRIORITIES
In this eGuide:
He said Aviatrix focused on collaboration, rather than only focusing on nailing down
Cyber and cloud top the
contractual terms.
charts

Simplifying cloud
architecture
Deploying multi-cloud
networking
Data management
emerges as priority
Identity management
priorities: MFA and Zero
trust
Service providers plug
cyber, cloud gaps
Half of IT pros cite budget
increases
"It wasn't about a professional services deal," Crowley said. "It was about how do you work
together. We did get to an agreement, but that wasn't the first order of business."
HALF OF IT PROS CITE BUDGET INCREASES
A business's ability to realize its IT priorities depends on available funding. TechTarget's tech
budget outlook reveals that about half of the survey respondents, globally, expect their
funding to increase in 2023. The EMEA and Latin American results showed some regional
variations. In EMEA, 44% of the respondents predicted an increase in IT spending, while 12%
expected a decrease and 31% anticipated no budget change this year. The Russia-Ukraine
war and inflation have put European IT budgets under pressure.
LATAM is also a budget outlier: Sixty-three percent of respondents expect an IT budget
increase and 26% forecast spending growth in excess of 20%. Caution should be used with
the LATAM results, as the survey sample was the smallest in the TechTarget survey and the
region encompasses an economically diverse set of more than two dozen countries. For
example, among the largest regional economies, inflation rates vary from 5.6% in Brazil and
7.76% in Mexico to 11.9% in Chile and more than 100% in Argentina.

15 2023 IT SPENDING PRIORITIES

In this eGuide:

Cyber and cloud top the

charts

Simplifying cloud
architecture

Deploying multi-cloud
networking

Data management
emerges as priority

Identity management
priorities: MFA and Zero
trust

Service providers plug

cyber, cloud gaps
With such high inflation rates, "companies may be increasing their budget just to buy
Half of IT pros cite budget
increases
essential technologies," said Lizzette Pérez Arbesú, TechTarget's executive editor for Mexico
and LATAM.

On the other hand, cloud newcomers could help explain the budget growth projections.
SMBs, for example, might be investing more in cloud and digitalization technologies, she
said. Businesses budgeting for the cloud this year, starting from a base limited previous
investment, could contribute to a spike in spending.

16 2023 IT SPENDING PRIORITIES

In this eGuide:
Marco Santos, CEO Americas at GFT, a digital transformation company with operations in
Cyber and cloud top the
Brazil, Costa Rica and Mexico, said consumers -- and their digital habits -- are the biggest
charts
factor influencing LATAM's IT spending. The majority of consumers in that region, he said,
Simplifying cloud "are quick to embrace any modern, digital technology that is introduced to them."
architecture

Deploying multi-cloud
networking
Data management
emerges as priority
The expected budget growth reflects LATAM companies' shift to larger scale digital
transformation projects, from AI to open banking, as consumers demand new digital
experiences, Santos added.

Identity management
priorities: MFA and Zero
trust

Service providers plug

cyber, cloud gaps

Half of IT pros cite budget

increases

17 2023 IT SPENDING PRIORITIES