Enhancement of Tech Initiatives in the Future

Organisations are prioritising cybersecurity as part of their digital transformation efforts.

FREMONT, CA:Businesses today are prioritising security above all else when it comes to their expenditure over the upcoming 12 months, with cybersecurity increasingly taking precedence over innovation. A poll of 1,703 IT leaders to learn more about the difficulties faced, funding priorities, and where enterprises are in their digital transformation journeys.

With 44 per cent of respondents ranking it in their top three priorities, IT security investment was by far the most popular overall funding priority for the upcoming year, followed by cloud infrastructure (36 per cent) and IT/cloud management (35 per cent).

Several technology sectors, including cloud infrastructure (42 per cent), big data and analytics (45 per cent), and automation (35 per cent), identified security as a top priority.

Additionally, businesses are placing a higher priority on cybersecurity as part of their digital transformation initiatives: 20 per cent of IT leaders said security came first, as opposed to 19 per cent who stated innovation. The priority of their digital transformation projects, according to 24 per cent of IT leaders in 2021, was innovation, while just 17 per cent mentioned IT security.

Following the rapid expansion of cloud deployments over the past two years and a widespread shift to remote working, both of which have increased the security dangers to corporate networks, Red Hat's research indicates stronger attention on cybersecurity from businesses.

Security is, of course, a top concern for leaders, but it appears that culture has taken a backseat. Seven per cent of respondents mentioned culture, which was the lowest-ranked priority on IT leaders' digitization agendas, up from six per cent in 2021.

When asked what their financing objectives were outside of goods and solutions, 37 per cent of respondents named digital transformation strategy, which tied with technology skills training (also 37 per cent) in terms of importance. This view was reflected in IT leaders' non-IT spending priorities. The recruiting and retention of IT/developers (28 per cent), compliance (28 per cent), and people and process skills training (30 per cent) completed the top five.

Therefore, the top five non-IT financing priorities are all, at least in part, focused on people. The only low-priority outlier among security funding priorities is the hiring of security and compliance staff.

Minimal change from 2021 in terms of how far along firms are in their digital transformation journeys: 12 per cent said they were leading, 23 per cent said they were accelerating, 31 per cent said they were transforming, and 18 per cent said they were emerging. However, six per cent of respondents acknowledged feeling stalled, which is twice the three per cent rate from 2021. IT executives attribute this to several factors, including hiring and financial difficulties.