2017 IT Priorities: Benelux IT leaders least confident of budget increase

IT decision makers based in the Benelux region are less confident than their European neighbours that IT budgets will increase in 2017.

A total of 28% of IT decision makers at Benelux-based organisations expect IT budgets to be higher in 2017 than in the previous 12 months, according to the findings of research from Computer Weekly/TechTarget.

This compared with 43% in the Nordic region, 34% in German-speaking countries, 39% in the UK, 35% in France and 36% in Eastern Europe.

Part of the reason IT leaders in the Benelux region can retain service levels with lower or flat budgets is the increased use of cloud computing.

To this end, the survey revealed Benelux IT decision makers look set to get extra money for cloud services, with 56% expecting a bigger spend next year. This was a significantly higher proportion than other areas, with managed services second at 34% and 30% expecting to spend more on staff.

The extra spending on cloud means on-premise technology budgets are the least likely to increase next year, according to the survey.

Only 4% expect the budget for on-premise networking and servers to increase in 2017, and 8% think on-premise storage spending will be higher.

It is not just on-premise technology budgets that are being squeezed by increased cloud computing. IT staff budgets in the Benelux region are expected to fall by 37% of respondents with the outsourced nature of cloud computing reducing the need for IT staff.

Benelux IT decision makers were also the most uncertain when it came to their 2017 IT budget, with 29% stating they did not know whether the IT budget would increase, decrease or stay the same. This compared with 21% in the German-speaking countries, 22% in the Nordics, 26% in France, 23% in the UK and 21% in Eastern Europe.