Credit crunch creates IT upgrade stalemate

The economy is taking its toll on IT makeovers, with companies putting hardware and software upgrades and refreshes on hold until the economic climate improves.

This is according to the National Computing Centre (NCC), whose Evaluation Centre surveyed businesses on their selection, purchase and use of business IT assets and services.

Almost a quarter (23 per cent) of those polled said hardware upgrades had been postponed, while the same number again conceded the same fate for software renewals.

Overall, just under a third (30 per cent) of those involved in the research are taking a rain check on IT infrastructure upgrade projects.

"This confirms a trend we have seen in previous research that IT budgets are coming under severe pressure and any projects that are viewed as non-essential or only effecting the back office are coming under increased scrutiny," said Steve Fox, managing director of the Evaluation Centre.

Against this bleak industry backdrop, the software as a service (SaaS) delivery model continued to boom, with 30 per cent of those surveyed saying they view it as very important or important to their business.

Small steps are also being taken in the wider adoption of cloud computing too, with 11 per cent viewing this area as key although some 39 per cent have yet to make up their minds.

Virtualisation also continues to be somewhat of a golden child, with 42 per cent of companies having deployed some type of server virtualisation, 28 per cent planning to do so and two per cent mulling over their options. Desktop virtualisation is also growing in awareness and implementation.

"Virtualisation has almost been seen as a universal panacea for both cost saving and providing a greener' IT environment," said Cliff Mills, NCC's research manager.

"However, the easy first phase of virtualisation has been done and the next steps will require even more careful planning and analysis to achieve real benefits."