European IT outlook 'positive' for 2004, says IDC

European CIOs and IT directors are becoming increasingly sceptical about the returns on some new technologies despite a more positive outlook for their IT spending over the next year, according to new research from IDC.

The 2004 Systems Survey of 1,000 IT executives in six European countries found that confidence in IT budgets is up two per cent on last year's results - with companies in the UK, Germany and Sweden the most positive about this year's outlook.

But despite indications of increased IT spending, the research found uncertainty over which investments will produce the greatest returns and business benefits, with many sceptical about new products such as blade servers, tablet PCs, and appliance servers.

Linux continues to be gaining influence and nearly half of all Linux server purchases in 2003 were used for new application deployment, compared with just under a third for Windows and Unix.

Server consolidation is still also a key strategy, with 27 per cent of those surveyed undergoing or about to undergo consolidation, compared to 20 per cent in the previous year.

In terms of the criteria used to select suppliers, CIOs and IT directors said price is still king, closely followed by support, while technology leadership and references were less important.

Chris Ingle, group consultant in IDC's European systems group, said in a statement that the results indicated 2004 would be a year of growth in computer systems in Europe.

"The vendors that will be able to take advantage of this will be those that can convince customers that the many new technology propositions being brought to market have a place in an already complex IT infrastructure. As this survey shows, technology buyers are unconvinced by many propositions that are being promoted by vendors."