Distinctly optimistic outlook towards the IT industry in 2014: Ernst & Young

Business expansion, emerging technologies and internal organizational or process change are the leading influencing factors for IT industry this year, professional services firm Ernst & Young said.

In its sixth annual survey report on enterprise IT trends and investments, Ernst & Young said it sees a distinctly optimistic outlook towards the IT industry in 2014.

"A distinct observation, which comes to light from this year's survey is that the market has almost immunized itself from the macroeconomic fluctuations. The uncertainty in the political outcomes of this year's general elections, the instabilities of the market and the changing regulatory landscape do not seem to be a significant influencing factor over IT priorities and investments," said Ernst & Young.

About 72% of respondents believe business expansion will drive IT investments, while only 39% think that macroeconomic uncertainties will impact their IT investments and priorities, said Ernst & Young.

As opposed to treating each regulation as a special project, organizations today are working out how they can manage and control compliance issues within each market as part of a "business as usual" model to in order to keep the costs down, it said.

Digital technologies - including social media, enterprise mobility, data analytics and cloud, commonly known as SMAC - are rapidly emerging as disruptive forces for organizations across all industries and are fundamentally changing the ways in which consumers interact with these organizations.

However, the results of Ernst & Young's 2014 survey have shown a marked difference in adoption levels for each one.

Cloud computing and IT consolidation are seen as the forerunners in this race with nearly 56% of respondents indicating it as their number one priority for the upcoming year; business intelligence, analytics and big data come second at 34%, while enterprise mobility is at 25% and social media is lagging behind at 9%.

An interesting outlier, which typically gains considerable interest, is information security with a share of 18% respondent votes for top priority in FY14-15. Security has consistently taken CIO's (Chief Information Officer) mindshare as one of the key priorities for last six years.

Most respondents seem to be focusing on the fundamentals of each of these digital technologies, ascertaining that they get them right before they move on to the fancier upgrades, said Ernst & Young.