"Storage technology is similar to insurance in the financial services industry. In times of a recession, you have to manage your risk. Storage protects what you have and reduces risk," said Steve Ingledew, managing director of Millward Brown Research's Technology Practice.

Sixty-five percent of the respondents said they expect a change in technology spending over the next year. On average, IT budgets were expected to shrink by 4.1%.

Spending on desktops, notebooks, servers, and hand-held devices was expected to drop by 3.2%, 2.8%, 2.5% and 1.8% respectively. Spending on printers, displays, and other peripherals was expected to drop by 2.8%, 2.5%, and 3.2% respectively.

Software spending was expected to drop anywhere from .05% to 1.7% this year depending on the underlying hardware technology, with OS spending down 1.3%.

Networking and telecommunications equipment spending was also expected to be off this coming year. Spending on LANs, WANs, Internet/Intranet/Extranet and telecom equipment spending were expected to be down 1.5%, 1.2%, .6% and 1.2% respectively.