IT priorities and budgets survey results|WatchGuard Blog

The coronavirus pandemic has forced a transformation in working practices and with it, the way MSPs manage customer cybersecurity. The possible return to the physical workplace and lingering economic uncertainties pose new challenges for tech leaders. These behavioral changes are measured in this Pulse report, which analyzes IT priorities and budgets in this area for Q2 of 2021. What do IT leaders expect the coming months to look like in terms of IT spending and priorities in their departments?

Around 300 industry executives were interviewed in the survey that asked three key questions, with the aim of finding out current trends in the sector:

Have your priorities shifted from the previous quarter?
What tools are you purchasing to accomplish these priorities?
How have your budgets been affected for this quarter and what high-cost purchases do you plan to make?

Observing shifts in these three areas is important, as the situation is changing again. On the one hand, a slow but steady return to the physical workplace transitioning away from remote working is expected, and on the other, the economy is still in a state of uncertainty, forcing companies to adjust their budgets as much as possible while avoiding any impact on cybersecurity. How do organizations plan to address these challenges?

Growing cybersecurity awareness and the constant migration to the Cloud

Awareness of cybersecurity continues to increase slowly but steadily and is seen as the highest priority for respondents: 60% believe that cybersecurity will be the top IT priority in this quarter (up from 58% in the previous quarter). But this increased awareness of data protection is accompanied by a strong interest in Cloud infrastructure, which is second on the list, rising 10% over the previous quarter.

Why the growing interest in Cloud infrastructure? It is clearly motivated by the desire to reduce costs while increasing cybersecurity and workflow automation (the fourth priority, according to respondents). 41% of respondents see IT-related business transformation as one of the top priorities for this quarter. MSPs require the advanced technology needed to protect today's enterprise and hybrid work environments. This entails smart, automation-based security solutions that can drastically reduce the need for time-consuming manual monitoring and alert management.

The WatchGuard Cloud platform enables this desired cost reduction since it is not necessary to budget for hardware or hardware maintenance. This platform greatly simplifies cybersecurity management for organizations while enabling customers to scale the structure according to their changing needs, adapting costs accordingly. This platform provides MSPs with sophisticated technology that allows:

High levels of integration and knowledge sharing with the rest of the WatchGuard portfolio, so they can offer easy-to-manage protection to their customers.
Substantial cost savings by reducing the time MSPs typically spend preparing, deploying and managing security for their customers.

WatchGuard offers a full range of tools and solutions in its portfolio, from network to endpoint, making it the ideal solution for any organization seeking business transformation.