What will be most important to IT organizations over the next 12 months? It's probably no surprise that cost control or reduction in spending is the key priority. Based on a recent survey of more than 400 enterprise-level IT management personnel and their teams in Europe and the United States, reducing IT costs is the number-one priority out of 15 objectives. The second most critical priority is addressing regulatory compliance issues. Improving the availability and performance of business services is the third most critical priority on the IT “must-do” list.

Other key priorities include incident and problem management, change management, virtualization, and capacity planning. Even if an initiative is not listed as critical over the next 12 months, all of the projects discussed in this survey are being worked on at various levels.

The challenge is to reduce costs and provide a high level of service while continuing to make investments that will position IT organizations to become more competitive and meet emerging business challenges. IT must continue to innovate and prove its value to the business.

This white paper looks at the near-term activities of the IT organizations surveyed by TechTarget, along with their constraints, issues, motivating factors, and strategies. The paper also explores how technology can help these organizations address their key priorities.