For this year, the top IT budget priorities which survey respondents expect to receive the greatest increases are the following: security project, storage, data networking, disaster recovery/business continuity, managed network services, application/ systems integration, deployment and development of new software application, replacement of aging hardware, and network convergence.

Majority of IT managers claimed that security projects will absorb a large share of the IT budget this year. Security is a top-level issue for IT due to the increasing threat posed by computer viruses, spam and hackers alike.

To counteract the harmful aftermath that these threats may bring about, Lucas disclosed that "we are still in the process of improving our overall data security in terms of hardware and software, bringing to mind that everyday new kinds of threats are emerging so equipping a business with the best technology is a must."

Another budget priority area which is expected to receive increases is the need to expedite the storage systems to facilitate operations of these organizations. "We intend to add more storage space for our online storage and backup systems this year," said Quiat, explaining that "we started to implement a robust online and centralized file storage system for our users as the need for file sharing and collaboration (among users) are becoming relevant in our day-to-day operations.

Apart from this, Quiat also confirmed that they want to add more offsite backup outside of Manila. "Once this is completed, we are going to have two offsite backup systems in place," he said. "I think it is reasonable to have redundancy at all times, especially now that almost all of our transactions are in electronic form," he added.