The 2011 CIO Agenda survey conducted by Gartner Executive Programs (EXP) showed that chief information officers in India ranked cloud computing as their top technology priority for 2011.
The worldwide CIO survey was conducted by Gartner EXP from September to December 2010 and represents CIO budget plans reported at that time. The survey includes responses from 2,014 CIOs representing over $160 billion in corporate and public-sector IT spending across 50 countries and 38 industries.
In India, CIOs expect to adopt new cloud services much faster than originally expected. Currently, no one reports having the majority of IT running in the cloud or on SaaS technologies, but over the next four years CIOs in India expect this number to increase to 67 percent or two out of three CIOs responding to the survey.
Closely following cloud computing as a priority were mobile technologies, virtualization, enterprise resource planning (ERP) and business process management (BPM). Other technologies in the top 10 include: IT management, networking, voice and data communications, business intelligence and analytics.
Until recently, the average IT organization dedicated the majority of their budget to day-to-day operations. CIOs see the introduction of Internet service-based technologies as changing that equation and releasing resources for innovation and growth.
"Over the next five years, CIOs expect dramatic changes in IT as they adopt new technologies and raise their contribution to competitive advantage," Mark McDonald, group vice president and head of research for Gartner Executive Programs, said. "Leaders will implement new infrastructure technologies to achieve increased efficiency and to redirect IT resources to create greater business impact."
On the business side, on the other hand, the top priority for CIOs is increasing enterprise growth. This emphasis, Gartner said, is consistent with emerging signs of economic recovery and increasing competition to attract and retain customers. Other business priorities identified include improving business continuity, risk and security, reducing enterprise costs, implementing and updating business applications and increased use of information analytics.