IT departments confident of delivering their projects next year despite recession

UK IT departments are confident about the delivery of their projects over the next 12 months despite the economic challenges ahead, according to a survey of 500 firms from Cisco.

The research investigated the key IT objectives being set by businesses and assessed the challenges ahead in achieving those goals.

The study identifies "reality gaps" between aspirational goals and the ability to achieve objectives, by exploring the IT departments' alignment with overall business performance, and the concerns expressed by IT professionals in achieving their goals.

The findings show high levels of confidence from corporate IT departments, with 68% of organisations confident of meeting their goals in 2009.

The survey found that the biggest "reality gaps" in IT strategy are in core infrastructure areas such as network performance and network security.

Businesses are also placing a high priority on increasing productivity by deploying systems such as unified communications and next-generation applications such as video, said Cisco.