There is one main priority when it comes to technology spending in 2023

?In terms of investment plans, there is a clear frontrunner, according to Red Hat's 2023 Tech Outlook study.

?

According to Red Hat's 2023 Global Tech Outlook study, businesses are prioritizing security above all else when it comes to their expenditure over the upcoming 12 months, with cybersecurity increasingly taking precedence over innovation.

?

Red Hat conducted a poll of 1,703 IT leaders to learn more about the difficulties faced, financing priorities, and where enterprises are in their digital transformation journeys.

?

With 44% of respondents ranking it in their top three priorities, IT security investment was "by far" the most popular overall funding priority for the upcoming year, followed by cloud infrastructure (36%) and IT/cloud management (35%), according to the study.

?

Several technological sectors, including cloud infrastructure (42%), big data and analytics (45%), and automation (35%), identified security as a top priority.

?

Additionally, Red Hat discovered that more businesses are placing a higher priority on cybersecurity as part of their digital transformation initiatives: 20% of IT leaders said security came first, as opposed to 19% who stated innovation. The priority of their digital transformation projects, according to 24% of IT leaders in 2021, was innovation, while just 17% mentioned IT security.

?

Following the rapid expansion of cloud installations over the past two years and a widespread move to remote working, both of which have increased the security dangers to corporate networks, Red Hat's research indicates stronger attention on cybersecurity from businesses.

?

Security is, of course, a top concern for leaders, but it seems that culture has taken a backseat.

?

Just 7% of respondents mentioned culture, which was the lowest-ranked priority on IT leaders' digitalization agendas (up from 6% in 2021). Given its overall significance, Red Hat described this as rather disappointing and pointed out that the digital revolution was greatly influenced by people and culture.

?

When asked what their financing objectives were outside of goods and solutions, 37% of respondents named digital transformation strategy, which tied with technology skills training (also 37%) in terms of importance. This view was echoed in IT leaders' non-IT spending priorities. The recruiting and retention of IT/developers (28%), compliance (28%), and people and process skills training (30%) completed the top five.

?

Therefore, the top five non-IT financing priorities are all, at least in part, focused on people, according to Red Hat. According to our observations, the only low-priority outlier among security budget objectives is the hire of security and compliance employees.

?

Red Hat saw a minimal change from 2021 in terms of how far along firms are in their digital transformation journeys: 12% said they were "leading," 23% said they were "accelerating," 31% said they were "transforming," and 18% said they were "emerging."

?

However, 6% of respondents acknowledged feeling "stalled," which is double the 3% rate from 2021. IT executives attribute this to a number of factors, including recruiting and budgetary difficulties.

?

Similarly, 6% of IT leaders stated that they had not yet begun, or were otherwise just beginning, their paths toward digital transformation, while 3% had no intentions at all to do so.

?

It is encouraging to see that lower-level IT personnel appear to have more say in organizational IT choices.

?

The majority of decision-makers for IT purchases continue to be C-level executives (92%), vice presidents (78%), and directors (74%), while 38% named engineers as important decision-makers. While lower than managerial jobs, Red Hat highlighted that "this is still a big proportion."

?

Even more, than firm presidents (8%), vice presidents (22%), directors (27%), and managers (48%), developers (62%) are major decision-makers.

?

"While the data does not support a thesis that IT decision-making authority in organizations has mostly devolved to developers, it does support the idea that developers at least see themselves as having increased authority," said Red Hat.

?

?