1,300 IT Leaders Dish on Concerns and Opportunities for 2014 [#Infographic]

Ask any IT decision-maker about his or her biggest challenge, and you are almost guaranteed the same answer: budget.

In Cisco’s Global IT Impact Survey, 34 percent of surveyed IT workers said that in the last 12 months, application rollouts were delayed because of insufficient budgets.

In the public sector, budgets are an ongoing issue despite the increasing demand for improved IT solutions. “Do more with less” is a common maxim these days in government, and one that likely frustrates IT managers working to modernize, simplify and streamline IT operations.

Aside from policy and budget, IT workers indicate that networking is the primary technology concern. Networking is the foundation for other technology, including cloud computing, Big Data, mobility and security. Recently, MeriTalk released a survey on networking in the federal government, and the results (PDF download) indicate the pinch that most IT leaders are feeling these days.

To overcome these challenges, network managers expect to transform almost half of their agency’s infrastructure between now and 2015. But this transformation may be easier said than done, as agencies fail to take important steps to coordinate Big Five (data center consolidation, mobility, security, Big Data, and cloud computing) efforts. Just 45 percent of agencies are using the budget process to prioritize and pace the implementation of each initiative and only 35 percent are rolling all five initiatives up to one senior executive. The majority of agencies also fail to follow a single, standardized process for the implementation of all five initiatives or have the leads for all five initiatives meet regularly to coordinate.

Check out the infographic below to see how IT leaders are handling the massive IT transformation.