Cloud tops technology priority list in 2011: Gartner

''2010 saw many economies around the world move from recession to recovery, with enterprises transitioning their strategies from cost-cutting to productivity,'' said Terick Chiu, executive partner, Gartner executive programs. ''In Asia, the priorities are slightly different as we have not been climbing out of recession, but increasing growth. However, this year we are more closely aligned with our global counterparts as recovery continues.''

''The push for growth in 2011 is leading to a change in emphasis,'' said Chiu. ''IT-enabled business transformation, or what we call digitalisation is accelerating. IT is now recognised by business leaders as a key lever for growth and productivity. As a result, CIOs and their teams must become more business savvy, focusing on business enablement, broader risk management and economic and finance issues.''

CIOs in Asia reported an average IT budget increase of 10 per cent over 2010, significantly better than the nominal 0.9 per cent worldwide average increase. In Asia, 53 per cent of CIOs expected an increased budget to work with this year, compared to 39 per cent globally, 31 per cent said their budget would remain flat (compared to 45 per cent globally), while 16 per cent of CIOs both in Asia and worldwide reported that their budget would decrease from 2010 levels.

''As CIOs take advantage of new technologies and priorities, they see a future based on more than provisioning technology solutions and services,'' Mr. Chiu said. ''In the future they envision, IT contributes to enterprise results rather than being limited to managing IT resources. Realising this future requires a fundamental shift in the focus of IT.''

Reducing enterprise costs did not make the top ten list for CIOs in Asia, but ranked number three on the list worldwide. CIOs in Asia need to support their organisation's desire to expand into new markets and geographies, but this did not feature on the priority list of their global counterparts. Many CIOs in Asia are still building out technical infrastructure and analytics, while these were not priorities for CIOs elsewhere.

''CIO technology priorities reflect a transformation in infrastructure, and the 'cloud' is dominating CIO plans and attention,'' said Mr Chiu. ''Consumer-oriented IT, information access by external partners, plus cloud and software-as-a-service will require new IT architectures and reshape the IT industry.''

There is some indication that Chinese companies will "leapfrog" some technologies, for example, by moving more directly to mobility- and services-type models. Gartner believes that this means technology companies seeking success in China will grow based on the reach of their channel, rather than expanding with existing customers.

A lower proportion of CIOs in Asia (33 percent) compared with their global counterparts (44 percent) felt that there was a ''very strong connection'' between their IT strategies and the strategic priorities of their organisations.