Report: Cost control and efficiency main concerns for public sector IT
18 May 2011 17:41:40
Decision-makers working in government IT departments are currently concerned most with making their systems more efficient and saving money, a recent study from CompTIA found.
The company's market research director, Amy Carrado, said that budgetary concerns were likely to make penny-pinching a more common behavior.
"[W]ith money to spend increasingly precious, agencies are likely to demand greater returns on their investments and require vendors to clearly prove the effectiveness of their solutions," she said in a statement.
Another significant factor driving government IT decisions, CompTIA said, was compliance with new regulations and mandates, which was cited by 54 percent of respondents.
Given the government's recent emphasis on cloud computing as the way forward for public sector IT, the finding that just 18 percent of decision-makers classified the technology as a top priority is somewhat startling. However, nearly half of respondents said increased training was on the way across departments, so attitudes could change.
Analysts say that government departments in particular should be attentive to cloud security needs, in order to protect sensitive data from unauthorized access.
-McAfee Cloud Security
