Europe and US to cut IT spend in 2009

CIOs will save up to spend in automation tools

European and US businesses expect to cut technology spending by two per cent in 2009. But software maker SAP is one of the few vendors where spending could increase, according to a UBS study.

Some 75 per cent of 100 chief information officers (CIOs) polled claimed they did not anticipate terminating maintenance contracts, but 70 per cent said they would renegotiate the terms of their supplier agreements in the coming year.

Around 12 per cent of the CIOs surveyed said they expected to increase spending on SAP products in 2009, as well as systems supporting automation and reduction in staff costs in areas such as the datacentre.

Meanwhile, 12 per cent of the respondents said they expected to cut back spending on Microsoft products, 15 per cent said they would spend less with Oracle and 19 per cent would reduce spending with IBM.

Server deployments are highlighted by the study as one of the slowest areas of IT spending, with adoption of Windows server platforms forecast to grow two per cent in 2009 after the three per cent growth seen in 2008, says the study. Adoption rates of Linux server tools will remain flat at one per cent.

Virtualisation software suppliers will see slowing decrease to six per cent in 2009 from 10 per cent in 2008, according to UBS.