Security is your biggest IT Priority

Security continues to be the number one IT Priority for UK tech professionals, according to research conducted by ZDNet UK and analyst company Butler Group.

The UK IT Priorities survey released on Thursday reveals that — despite the considerable attention given to emerging technologies such as open source, mobile applications and grid computing — protecting existing infrastructure weighs most heavily on the minds of UK tech professionals.

You can download a full copy of the report here.

Nearly 50 percent of respondents named security as their primary focus, with issues such as anti-spam measures being particularly important.

But despite the emphasis on security, many organisations are failing to allocate enough of their IT budget to the issue or are investing in the wrong kind of technology, the report indicated.

The majority of companies surveyed are failing to address the need to approach security in an integrated way, preferring instead to focus investments on short-term threats.

Toolkits of the latest information on security and the other issues highlighted in the report can be found here

"It is clear that many organisations continually under-spend on IT security, and for many, the purchases that are made are often directed towards fire-fighting the latest threat model, rather than on an integrated set of security solutions," said Butler Group, author of the report.

Butler Group believes UK companies need to change their thinking around security and see it "as a business-enabling solution" rather than as "a necessary evil".

The wide-ranging UK IT Priorities Survey asked respondents to identify which technologies and issues they consider to be most important to their organisation now and over the next 12 months.

Aside from concerns around security, the report also revealed that:

• Application development is considered a key factor in improving organisational competitiveness and increasing user productivity, but only an average of 20 percent of the IT budget is invested in this area.
• Mail and Messaging Management: email is already a critical business system responsible for communicating and storing more than 60 percent of business information, but instant messaging is seen as the way forward for improving users' productivity.
• IT Management.Companies are striving to achieve greater efficiency in this area. Effective IT management is considered fundamental in the face of ongoing pressure to manage risk and increase productivity and competitiveness.
• Networking issues and their impact on daily operations are a great concern. The IT infrastructure must evolve before the virtual office concept can become a reality, and UK companies are clearly responding to the demands of their workforce: almost 70 percent of respondents intend to implement remote access, 54 percent Wi-Fi and 48 percent Internet telephony.

Tim Jennings, research director at Butler Group and one of the report's authors, said: "It is clear from the UK IT Priorities Survey that IT professionals are having to devote a large proportion of their time to managing the challenges created by existing IT investments, rather than on the new initiatives that will bring competitive advantage. We believe that companies must therefore implement methods to more accurately measure IT costs and value."

To download a full copy of the UK IT Priorities Survey click here.

For more information on the IT Priorities programme, go to the Insight homepage.

For more information on Butler Group click here.