'Invest in what we already have' is the spending mantra

Investing in under-utilised hardware and infrastructure is among the highest priorities for businesses spending once more on IT.

Respondents to a silicon.com survey, run in association with CSF, said 'investing in existing IT infrastructure' (38.2 per cent of respondents) and 'extracting more value' (36.5 per cent) top their list of priorities.

In terms of which areas are ripe for particular investment it's very much a case of 'the usual suspects'. Storage and security still top the lists for more than half the respondents. Investing in infrastructure consolidation - servers, storage and networks - was cited by 62 per cent of respondents, while investing in security is on the 'to do' list of 50.3 per cent of respondents.

Diana Cockrane-Hall, director at CSF, said the proliferation of viruses and the increased awareness of the menace of spam mean security remains high on most lists of priorities.

However, there was also a strong support for mobile working, with 49 per cent of respondents saying they will be investing in wireless communications and remote working technologies such as wireless LANs, VPN access and broadband.