When changes were made, budgets for servers and storage remained relatively stable while budgets for personal computers (PCs) and printers were more likely to be cut. More than 70 per cent of organisations kept the same budget in 2009 as they had in 2008 for server and storage.

According to a Gartner report conducted in May, 'User Survey Analysis: Impact of the Economic Crisis on IT Adoption in Large Organizations in China for 2009', despite the global economic downturn, large Chinese organisations still appear fairly confident of internal conditions and are prepared to continue investing in IT.

The survey asked respondents to identify significant drivers of investment in their organisation for the year. The key drivers were, in order of priority: improving operational efficiency, improving employee productivity followed by reducing operational costs.

"China remains a relatively buoyant market for IT vendors who can help IT users to achieve greater efficiency and productivity while reducing costs," said Gartner research vice president Jennifer Wu.