IT Investment Areas for Decision Makers in 2019

There are two main fields of IT investment which have arisen as goals for the end of 2019: cloud migrations and moving away from Windows 7.

Moving to the Cloud

With the Gartner predictions that public cloud services to be worth $206.2bn by 2019 it is no wonder this is an expanding field.

IT investment according to UK-based decision-makers in Computer Weekly/TechTarget IT Priorities survey, there is a growing appetite to increase the use of platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) technologies by the end of the annum.

Quick definitions of PaaS and IaaS

• IaaS: a service model that delivers computer infrastructure on an outsourced basis to support enterprise operations.
• PaaS: a concept that describes a computing platform that is rented or delivered as an integrated solution, solution stack or service through an Internet connection.

Additionally, 80% of respondents mentioned they expected their use of IaaS services and public cloud to increase. 83% were expecting their use of PaaS to increase also. However, IaaS will continue to be the fastest growing part of the cloud market, attracting significant IT investment.

Sid Nag, research director at Gartner said “Demand for integrated IaaS and PaaS offerings is driving the next wave of cloud infrastructure adoption,

“We expect that IaaS-only cloud providers will continue to exist in future, but only as niches players, as organisations will demand offerings with more breadth and depth for their hybrid environments.”

Move away from Windows 7

By the end of 2019, Microsoft will end support of Windows 7. Therefore, upgrading your company to Windows 10 is a top priority by the end of the annum.

In the same Computer Weekly/TechTarget survey, 55% of interviewees mentioned that they would migrate to Windows 10 by the end of the year. This was similar internationally with 44% of respondents from Europe, the Middle East and Africa planning a desktop migration.

What may be key information for businesses is that over 50% of IT professionals rated this as their highest priority for 2019. I will not pretend to know a lot about the transfer to Windows 10, but this suggests there is a long way to go for these businesses. Alternatively, this may be reassuring to hear depending on your tech goals for IT investment.

Given that this change is necessary by the end of 2019, it is interesting to note that only 20% of respondents mentioned that they would be running desktop-as-a-service strategies. Unless IT departments exert pressure on their desktop applications providers, there is no incentive for these providers to adapt programmes to better suit desktop IT.

Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain

In 2018, 18% of respondents within the UK and Ireland indicated that AI was a priority. However, this figure has risen to 27%, an increase of 50%. Blockchain and AI have become priority areas for IT investment in tech.

Blockchain went from 3% to 6% as an IT investment priority area in the UK. Additionally, 10% of UK respondents put this as a broad initiative for 2019.

In terms of digital transformation, AI was cited by 29% of respondents as important to the development of businesses. These emerging technologies are climbing the ranks of the tech sector in businesses. There is no doubt this will increase by 2020.

Overall

There are two key features of this year’s goals, although both distinct and perhaps applicable to different businesses. Whatever your IT goal by the end of the year, please contact Serviceteam IT to see how we can help!