That's "one sector where we're seeing an increased investment, particularly in medical records because of the government incentives," Wettermann said of healthcare.

"We're also seeing small and medium-sized business increasing their tech spend because cloud options put more sophisticated application capabilities -- like analytics and e-commerce -- within their reach," she added.

In general, the latest research from Nucleus, an independent, Boston-based research concern, contained a somewhat more bullish review of tech prospects than was presented in recent research from the , and the , although both of their surveys also recorded some spending and job growth in IT.

Nucleus, which has a strong return-on-investment case-study focus, has been noting for a year the role of greater IT spending in holding employment levels down. It said more than 60% of its cases "included reduced or avoided staff as a benefit." Nucleus added that it expected to see continued investment in areas that include customer relations, integration, business intelligence and analytics, and workforce management.