ZDNet – Line-of-business tech budgets may soon top IT department budgets: Gartner

Gartner has just issued it’s latest set of information technology predictions for 2012 and beyond. Along with the more predictable forecasts that everything is going to cloud and mobile, with a lot of Big Data to go along with it, is this interesting nugget: IT departments may soon have smaller technology budgets than the business units they’re supposed to be serving.

Gartner analysts are predicting that by the year 2015, 35% of enterprise IT expenditures for most organizations will be managed outside the IT department’s budget. “Next generation digital enterprises are being driven by a new wave of business managers and individual employees who no longer need technology to be contextualized for them by an IT department,” the report states. “These people are demanding control over the IT expenditure required to evolve the organization within the confines of their roles and responsibilities. CIOs will see some of their current budget simply reallocated to other areas of the business. In other cases, IT projects will be redefined as business projects with line-of-business managers in control.”

Can it be, that non-IT types may have bigger technology budgets that IT departments? “We know that has been shifting subtlety over the years,” says Daryl Plummer, managing VP and Gartner fellow in an audio interview posted at the Gartner prediction page. “Now, it is something has become a major issue as CMOs, or chief marketing officers, may end up having larger IT budgets than CIOs.”

More of the ZDNet article from Joe McKendrick

Alex Carroll

Managing Member at Lifeline Data Centers

Alex, co-owner, is responsible for all real estate, construction and mission critical facilities: hardened buildings, power systems, cooling systems, fire suppression, and environmentals. Alex also manages relationships with the telecommunications providers and has an extensive background in IT infrastructure support, database administration and software design and development. Alex architected Lifeline’s proprietary GRCA system and is hands-on every day in the data center.