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ZDNet ASIA IT PRIORITIES 2013

The strategies, priorities and implementation plans of Asian IT leaders and professionals

Version: 1.0 20 March 2013 Authors: Angus Macaskill Survey programming, management, analysis: Gan Kwok Ling, Shirong Zeng, Blas Prieto

2013 CBS Interactive

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................ 4 ABOUT THIS REPORT................................................................................................................................... 6 REPORT RELEASE SCHEDULE ................................................................................................................................. 6 ABOUT IT PRIORITIES .......................................................................................................................................... 6 ABOUT ZDNET AND CBS INTERACTIVE ................................................................................................................... 6 IT PRIORITIES .............................................................................................................................................. 7 OPTIMIZING CUSTOMER PROCESS - THE NUMBER ONE IT PRIORITY ............................................................................... 7 CUSTOMER PROCESS ALSO HEADS THE TOP 3 PRIORITIES LIST .................................................................................... 8 THE STRATEGIC POSITIONING OF ICT ........................................................................................................ 11 ICTS CONTRIBUTION TO THE BUSINESS COULD DO BETTER ..................................................................................... 11 THE ROLE OF CXOS IN DRIVING ICT-LED INNOVATION ............................................................................................. 12 CEOS ACTIVE INVOLVEMENT IS A BIG FACTOR........................................................................................................ 13 CEO INVOLVEMENT IN ICT IMPACTS BUSINESS SUCCESS ........................................................................................... 14 CXO INVOLVEMENT ALSO IMPORTANT.................................................................................................................. 15 ICT BUDGETS............................................................................................................................................. 16 ICT EXTERNAL SPENDING IN 2012 ....................................................................................................................... 16 ICT EXTERNAL SPENDING IN 2013 TO GROW BY 23% ON AVERAGE ........................................................................... 17 SPENDING INCREASES MORE WIDESPREAD IN 2013 COMPARED TO 2012 .................................................................... 18 BUSINESS PROFILE .................................................................................................................................... 19 THE COMPETITIVE POSITIONING OF RESPONDENT BUSINESSES.................................................................................... 19 ANNUAL REVENUES........................................................................................................................................... 20 DATACENTRE ............................................................................................................................................ 21 ROLE WITH RESPONSIBILITY FOR DATACENTRE ........................................................................................................ 21 DATACENTRE BUDGET IN 2013 V. 2012 ............................................................................................................... 22 MOST IMPORTANT DATACENTRE PROJECT IN 2013 ................................................................................................. 23 BUSINESS OBJECTIVES OF THE MOST IMPORTANT DATACENTRE PROJECT ...................................................................... 24 CURRENT IMPLEMENTATION STATUS .................................................................................................................... 25 FUTURE IMPLEMENTATION / UPGRADE PLANS ........................................................................................................ 26 EXTENT OF VIRTUALISATION................................................................................................................................ 27 CLOUD ...................................................................................................................................................... 28 ROLE WITH RESPONSIBILITY FOR PRIVATE CLOUD ..................................................................................................... 28 ROLE WITH RESPONSIBILITY FOR PUBLIC CLOUD....................................................................................................... 29 CLOUD EXTERNAL ICT SPENDING 2013 V. 2012 .................................................................................................... 30 MOST IMPORTANT CLOUD PROJECT IN 2013 ......................................................................................................... 31 BUSINESS OBJECTIVES OF MOST IMPORTANT CLOUD PROJECT .................................................................................... 32 CURRENT IMPLEMENTATION STATUS .................................................................................................................... 33 FUTURE IMPLEMENTATION / UPGRADE PLANS ........................................................................................................ 34 IT SECURITY .............................................................................................................................................. 35 RESPONSIBILITY FALLS ON SENIOR IT MANAGEMENT ................................................................................................ 35 FORMALIZED SECURITY POLICIES STILL NOT A BUSINESS NORM ................................................................................... 37 FUTURE IMPLEMENTATION / UPGRADE PLANS ........................................................................................................ 42 ANALYTICS ................................................................................................................................................ 43

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ROLE WITH RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANALYTICS ........................................................................................................... 43 ANALYTICS EXTERNAL ICT SPENDING 2013 V. 2012 ............................................................................................... 44 MOST IMPORTANT ANALYTICS PROJECT IN 2013 .................................................................................................... 45 BUSINESS OBJECTIVES OF MOST IMPORTANT ANALYTICS PROJECT ............................................................................... 46 CURRENT IMPLEMENTATION STATUS .................................................................................................................... 47 FUTURE IMPLEMENTATION / UPGRADE PLANS ........................................................................................................ 48 NETWORKING / COMMUNICATIONS ........................................................................................................ 49 ROLE WITH RESPONSIBILITY FOR NETWORK / COMMUNICATIONS ............................................................................... 49 NETWORK / COMMUNICATIONS BUDGETS 2013 V. 2012 ........................................................................................ 50 MOST IMPORTANT NETWORK / COMMUNICATIONS PROJECT IN 2013 ........................................................................ 51 BUSINESS OBJECTIVES OF MOST IMPORTANT NETWORK / COMMUNICATIONS PROJECT ................................................... 52 CURRENT IMPLEMENTATION STATUS .................................................................................................................... 53 FUTURE IMPLEMENTATION / UPGRADE PLANS ........................................................................................................ 54 END USER COMPUTING ............................................................................................................................ 55 ROLE WITH RESPONSIBILITY FOR END USER COMPUTING ........................................................................................... 55 END USER COMPUTING EXTERNAL ICT SPENDING 2013 V. 2012 .............................................................................. 56 PRIMARY DESKTOP/LAPTOP OPERATING SYSTEM ..................................................................................................... 57 CURRENT IMPLEMENTATION STATUS .................................................................................................................... 58 FUTURE IMPLEMENTATION / UPGRADE PLANS ........................................................................................................ 59 METHODOLOGY AND RESPONDENTS ........................................................................................................ 60 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................ 60 RESPONDENT DEMOGRAPHICS ............................................................................................................................ 60

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Executive Summary
For IT leaders in 2013, the customer is king The number one priority for IT this year in Asia is optimising customer processes. Over onequarter of organizations (28%) are prioritising IT toward the customer. Its a clear indication ICT is now more focused outside the organization than inside (by comparison, just 8% say internal business processes are a priority). Internal customers matter too. Delivering on IT service levels is the second most important priority cited by 14% of organizations. And since delivering to internal customers is often about supporting their service to external ones, these two main priorities are connected.

Cost-effective IT is effective IT Priorities to do with costs also rate high. A total of 17% are prioritising cost-reduction initiatives including reducing overall business costs (6%), reducing overall ICT costs (4%), increasing efficiencies in the datacentre (4%), and moving to cloud architecture (3%). Despite a host of other competing priorities, like providing a secure IT environment, and optimising processes with suppliers, the unmistakeable focus of IT in Asian organisations will be on the customer and on cost management.

IT external spending will increase 23% on 2012 Businesses will apply resources to customer process optimisation and other IT priorities in two ways through the increased external budgets at their disposal (on average up 23% on the prior year), and via cost savings from increased virtualisation and cloud initiatives. Three-quarters (75%) of businesses will increase external IT spending in 2013 compared to their 2012 spend. The corresponding survey in 2012 reported that 60% had increased budgets. The proportion of businesses with increases greater than 20% this year is almost double that from the 2012 IT Priorities study. Savvy IT vendors that help businesses with customer process optimisation and deliver cost efficiencies could find good market opportunities.

The CEO is a critical figure in successful IT With the exception of the CIO, the C-level executive most commonly driving ICT-led change is the CEO. 25% say the CEO does this to a great extent, and 22% say a lot. Organizations with a CEO whos proactively involved in ICT-led change say ICT makes a larger contribution to the business than others where the CEO is not so involved. These organizations are also more likely to be outperforming their industry peers.

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Some technologies take precedence in supporting key business and IT priorities. In the datacentre, server virtualisation is this years biggest focus (30% of businesses are working on it in 2013). The most prevalent variant of cloud will be private cloud, and 44% will work on such projects. Despite the increasing security threats, the main focus in terms of IT Security is still network/perimeter security - 31% of businesses are implementing and/or upgrading these capabilities. In analytics, traditional tools like OLAP and data warehousing are the priority for 38% of businesses, way ahead of the newer big data analytics technologies, while in the network arena the primary focus is on network management tools.

Asian IT a changing picture The IT landscape in Asia can be thought of as one viewed through a shimmering heat haze. Sometimes the picture comes into focus, sometimes its less distinct. Its always changing, and changing differently in each country especially as emerging economies race forward, with concomitant demands on IT developments. This report is but one snapshot of that changing landscape, one we at ZDNet Asia hope adds to the clarity of the picture. The picture consists of many metaphorical pixels, and in the case of IT Priorities the pixels are the 1,236 of ZDNets audience who contributed around 20 minutes of their time to help us form a larger understanding. We sincerely thank you all for your contribution.

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About this report


Report Release Schedule
Initial Report This report represents the initial release of survey findings for ZDNet Asia IT Priorities 2013.

Subsequent Reports We will release subsequent addendums with further details on some of the technology areas covered at top-line level in this report. The first of these reports, ZDNet Asia IT Security Priorities 2013 sponsored by FireEye, is also released during w/c 18 Mar 2013. Please check back to http://www.zdnetasia.com for further category reports.

About IT Priorities
This is the third Asian instalment of IT Priorities, an annual survey from CBS Interactive about the strategies, priorities and implementation plans of IT leaders and professionals across the globe. In addition to this report, CBS Interactive is releasing reports covering IT markets in India, China, USA, UK, France, and Australia and New Zealand in coming weeks. Please refer to the Methodology chapter at the end of this report for more information about the report scope, respondent base and topics covered.

About ZDNet and CBS Interactive


ZDNet (www.zdnet.com) is where technology means business. The site attracts an enthusiastic and interactive audience of business technology influencers, many of whom visit for the latest coverage and analysis of how technology impacts business. Business leaders and decision makers including CEOs, CIOs and IT professionals at all levels value the site due to its extensive resources, enabling them to make the most out of technology for their business challenges.

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IT Priorities
Optimizing customer process - the number one IT Priority
In line with international trends, customers are getting most ICT attention in Asia

Optimising business processes for customers is the number one ICT priority in over onequarter of organizations (28%). This is a clear indication that ICT is now more focused outside the organization than inside (only 8% say internal business processes are a priority). The focus on customers is emphasised by the fact 10% are giving priority to improving information management for more informed decision-making (e.g. using data warehouses, analytics, big data) it is the 3rd highest priority. Internal customers matter too. ICT teams are also putting emphasis on delivering on IT service levels a priority for 14% of organizations.

Some of the focus on optimising customer processes will be made possible by reducing ICT spending elsewhere A total of 17% are prioritising cost-reduction initiatives including reducing overall business costs (6%), reducing overall ICT costs (4%), increasing efficiencies in the datacentre (4%), and moving to cloud architecture (3%).

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Customer process also heads the top 3 priorities list


This chart shows the priorities ranking when all 3 top priorities are included (as opposed to just the number one priority as with the previous page). The ranking of the list is practically the same as the previous chart, but some of the other topics are closer to optimising customer process by dint of picking up 2nd and 3rd priority nominations.

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Large organizations are giving marginally more emphasis to optimising business processes for customers (30%) than small (26%) and medium sized organizations (21%). Making it easy for customers to do business through whichever channel they choose is key here. Small and medium sized businesses cant afford to fall behind.

While Western surveys indicate ongoing efforts to migrate to Cloud architectures, such a shift is not a leading priority for Asian organizations (only 3% rate it as a priority), perhaps due to lower internal cost bases than in the west or concerns about data sovereignty. Only 4% of respondents rate reducing overall ICT costs as a priority Across organizations of all sizes, delivering on IT service levels and improving information management are the second and third strongest priorities, with the exception of medium sized organizations which rank optimising business processes with suppliers as their third biggest priority.

<100 Optimising business processes for customers Delivering on IT service levels Improving Information Management Optimising business processes with suppliers Optimising internal business processes Providing a secure ICT environment Reducing overall business costs Reducing overall ICT costs Increasing efficiencies / reducing costs in the datacentre Recruiting and developing the best ICT talent Providing fail-safe disaster recovery Moving to a Cloud architecture 26%

100-499 21%

500 + 30%

Not discl. 29%

13% 9% 7%

13% 10% 12%

16% 10% 8%

15% 14% 8%

10% 6% 6% 5% 5%

9% 7% 7% 4% 4%

6% 6% 8% 4% 5%

8% 6% 5% 3% 1%

5% 3% 4%

3% 5% 4%

2% 2% 2%

8% 1% 3%

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IT priorities vary by economy. Reducing overall business costs and reducing overall IT Costs is a much bigger priority for Singapore, while internal business processes figure more strongly for Indonesian organizations. SG Optimising business processes for customers - e.g. CRM, self-service portals, e-commerce etc. Delivering on IT service levels (e.g. service availability, responsiveness) to business users Improving Information Management for more informed decision making (e.g. data warehousing, data analytics, Big data etc.) Optimising internal business processes e.g. HR, Finance etc. Optimising business processes with suppliers - e.g. ERP, Supply chain, procurement etc. Providing a secure ICT environment Reducing overall business costs Reducing overall ICT costs Increasing efficiencies / reducing costs in the datacentre Recruiting and developing the best ICT talent 27% 16% 5% 6% 6% 6% 12% 8% MY 23% 15% 7% 8% 10% 8% 7% 3% ID 27% 12% 11% 14% 9% 7% 3% 7% PH 32% 15% 14% 7% 6% 7% 4% 1% Other 22% 12% 11% 8% 13% 3% 8% 5%

4% 2%

5% 4%

5% 2%

4% 5%

3% 6%

Providing fail-safe disaster recovery and back-up capabilities

4%

5%

2%

1%

2%

Moving to a Cloud architecture

3%

3%

2%

3%

4%

Other

1%

1%

1%

1%

2%

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The strategic positioning of ICT


ICT in business has initially been seen as a support function where expensive technology was used to perform basic isolated functions, typically such as financial accounting, or stock control or order processing. The growth of networking and the internet greatly increased the utility of ICT (think email and electronic transactions in the supply chain), and now ICT has become central to the operations of most organizations. Some organizations have gone a step further to the point where ICT is not just supporting the business, in many cases it is the basis for the success and development of the business. This section looks at the way organizations perceive ICTs contribution to their performance, and at the involvement of senior executives in ICT-led transformations.

ICTs contribution to the business could do better


This chart shows respondents perceptions of the way ICT contributes to business performance on a 4-level hierarchy model (the lowest level is delivering, the highest level is innovating). ICT is making a big contribution in one-quarter of businesses, but in most others it is merely delivering adequate service, or helping improve processes in limited ways

Only one-quarter of respondents say their organization has a major contribution from ICT (15% say ICT is innovating, 10% say it is differentiating). At the lowest level of the hierarchy, 35% say ICT is just delivering providing infrastructure and applications but concentrating on delivering established services without improvements. 40% reckon ICT is improving helping make specific business process more efficient and effective.

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In nearly half (47%) of the large organizations surveyed, ICT is perceived to be delivering infrastructure, applications and databases as well as established services, but in only 16% is it perceived as innovating and in even less (9%) as differentiating.

Small and medium-sized organizations are more likely to rely on ICT to differentiate them in markets against their larger competitors (the 3rd level on the model), but a higher proportion of larger organizations (16%) have ICT contributing at the 4th level of the model (innovating). 45% of small organizations use ICT merely to improve specific business processes rather than in a more transformational way. However, these organizations also plan to ramp up their external ICT spending, indicating they intend to drive change and competitiveness through increased ICT investment (See ICT Budgets). ALL <100 11% 16% 45% 27% 100-499 13% 15% 35% 38% 500 + 16% 9% 28% 47% Not Discl. 16% 8% 42% 34%

Innovating Differentiating Improving Delivering

15% 10% 40% 35%

The role of CXOs in driving ICT-led innovation


The CEO is the leadership team member (outside IT) who most often drives ICT-led innovation.

No surprise that the CIO is the executive most likely to be proactively driving ICT-led innovation in the organization (34% say the CIO does this to a great extent, and 27% say a lot). Some readers may be surprised the CEO is the second most involved executive in driving ICTled innovation (25% say the CEO does this to a great extent, and 22% say a lot). This may contrast with the received wisdom that the CMO is today a leading player in driving ICT, and is indeed starting to take over some ICT budgets. In fact, the CMO is less influential in Asia with businesses saying the COO, Customer Service Leader and Sales director are more active in ICT innovations than is the CMO.

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CEOs active involvement is a big factor


Active leadership and sponsorship from the CEO is vital for any organization seeking to extract real value and competitive advantage from ICT investment.

Organizations where the CEO is proactively driving ICT-led change are almost twice as likely to report that their business is leveraging ICT at the highest level (innovating) in a four-level hierarchy. 20% of such businesses say the role of ICT is innovating, compared to just 12% of businesses where the CEO is not proactively involved. The chart shows the level at which ICT contributes to an organization for two types of businesses those where the CEO is proactively driving ICT-led change a lot or to a great extent compared to businesses where thats not the case.

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CEO involvement in ICT impacts business success


While the active involvement of the CEO and other C-level executives helps drive ICT performance, it is also clear that ICTs ability to deliver innovation and not just services feeds directly into overall business performance. That makes the case for executive leadership from outside the ICT group even more compelling

Organizations where the CEO is proactively driving ICT-led change are much more likely to be performing better than those where the CEO is not so involved. 33% of such businesses say theyre significantly outperforming industry peers, compared to only 19% of other businesses where business success is mostly mediocre.

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CXO involvement also important


The active involvement of other C-level executives in ICT-led change also produces significant benefits. Combined, the last two findings lead us to conclude that organizations in which IT remains an autonomous island are in danger of long-term ICT underperformance and of not maximising their return on ICT investment

Organizations where a minimum of 3 CXOs proactively drive ICT-led change are also more likely to report theyre leveraging ICT at the highest level (Innovating) in a four-level hierarchy. 20% of such businesses say the role of ICT is innovating, compared to 16% of businesses where 3 CXOs are not proactively involved. Organizations with three or more CXOs proactively driving ICT-led change are also more likely to be at the third level (differentiating). This leads us to conclude that organizations in which ICT appears to be performing well to its own metrics (for example, service measures) need to think more broadly about how ICT is performing in driving business success.

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ICT Budgets
ICT external spending in 2012
44% of respondents report ICT external spending (i.e. not including ICT staff salaries and internal costs) as US$ 99K or less in the past financial year). This reflects the spread of organization sizes in Asia, and in the sample for this study.

16% had external spending of US$ 100K to $999K, and 12% spent between US$1m and $49m. 5% of respondents had external budgets of US$50m and above, while 23% of respondents did not know their companys overall ICT external budgets.

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ICT External Spending in 2013 to grow by 23% on average


Small organizations are expecting to increase their external ICT spending more than medium and large organizations, indicating both that they are coming off a lower base of service delivery and know they need to improve.

On average, respondents say external ICT spending will increase in 2013 by 23% compared to 2012. The percentage increases will be smallest in larger organizations (those with 500+ staff will have 19% increases) and largest in small businesses (23% for businesses with less than 100 staff).

Respondents say their external ICT spending increases are more widespread in 2013, compared to 2012, than they were in the 2012 study - compared to 2011 (see chart over).

More than two-thirds (67%) report planned spending increases of 10% or more. 37% will get 20% or more. Only 9% will have reduced external spending in 2013.

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Spending increases more widespread in 2013 compared to 2012


Three-quarters (75%) of businesses will increase external IT spending in 2013 compared to 2012. The corresponding survey in 2012 reported that 60% had increased budgets. The proportion of businesses with increases this year is almost double that from the 2012 IT Priorities study.

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Business Profile
The competitive positioning of respondent businesses
There is possibly a misperception among the respondents over the competitive positioning of their organizations. Half say they are outperforming, and yet a third more say they are on a par with their peers. They cant all be right, although the imbalance in the answers is also partly due to the nature of the sample where more of the successful businesses have probably responded (because they are keen to see how they compare to their peers).

One-half of respondents say theyre ahead of the competition 26% are significantly outperforming industry peers and 24% are slightly outperforming. Just over one-third (36%) say their performance is about the same as peers 14% say theyre underperforming either slightly (9%) or significantly (5%) In reality, more organizations may be underperforming than either realise or admit here. Their failure to accurately gauge this must be a risk factor for their businesses as it could be read to indicate a degree of complacency about their relative performance

63% of large organizations say they are outperforming their peers and another 28% say they are on a par with their peers

Small and medium sized organizations are rather more critical of their own performance than large ones. ALL <100 15% 31% 38% 9% 7% 100-499 18% 30% 43% 10% 0% 500 + 16% 47% 28% 6% 3% Not discl. 30% 20% 35% 9% 6%

Significantly outperforming Slightly outperforming Same as industry peers Slightly underperforming Significantly underperforming

26% 24% 36% 9% 5%

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Annual revenues
The revenues of respondent businesses span a wide spectrum.

24% of respondents have revenues above US$ 20m (9% are above US$ 1bn). In the middle range, 21% have annual revenues between US$ 1m to $19m. Reflecting the distribution of businesses in Asian economies, 30% have revenues of less than US$ 1m.

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Datacentre
Role with responsibility for Datacentre
CIOs and CTOs hold the keys Senior IT Management (e.g. CIOs, CTOs and IT Manager) have responsibility for datacenter in 52% of organizations, and IT infrastructure staff hold that role in 23% of businesses. Executive management and department heads together hold sway over the datacentre in 7% of companies. These are typically C-level executives of smaller firms.

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Datacentre budget in 2013 v. 2012


Datacentre budget shows highest growth across IT categories Asian businesses report that external ICT spending on datacenters will grow by 24% in 2013. That's the biggest growth in budget across the categories surveyed in the study. The spending increase is similar across all sizes of business that disclosed their business size. This is in line with the ongoing activity to transform datacenters reported in this research study. It also reflects Gartners prediction of growing data center spending in the Asia-Pacific (Gartner predicts a growth in datacenter spending of 9.5% to US$28.6 million in 2013 - above its prediction of a 8% rise in overall IT expenditure)

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Most important datacentre project in 2013


Server virtualisation seen as key to performance Server virtualizations are the most important datacenter projects this year for 30% of organizations. The top result is in line with growing interest in the software-defined datacenter. Second on the list are managed services/co-location initiatives rated most important by 13% of respondents. Bottom choices are the implementation of hybrid cloud and public cloudwith only 5% of respondents saying these are the most important datacenter initiative.

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Business objectives of the most important datacentre project


Datacenter projects heavily focused on cost objectives. Almost one-half (49%) of respondents cite a cost-related objective for their most critical 2013 datacenter project. 20% of Asian businesses aim to achieve cost efficiencies through better hardware utilization; 16% say their primary objective is to cut costs in the business generally; and 13% are looking for cost efficiencies through automation in the datacenter. The focus on relieving cost pressures and improving productivity comes against a backdrop of lingering global economic uncertainty and downward pressure on business costs generally, and also on IT budgets. These stated priorities reflect the growing desire of organizations to spend less on maintaining their IT infrastructure, and shift those savings into IT that builds competitive advantage. That is congruent with the 13% who report the primary objective of their datacenter projects is to increase sales. Continuing with the sales theme, 9% say their datacenter project objective is to develop new ways of connecting with customers, and 10% say its to build a more agile business model.

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Current Implementation Status


Big push to virtualise servers 41% of organizations have completed virtualization initiatives, and a further 32% have a project underway. When the latter group completes those projects, around three-quarters (73%) of Asian businesses will have virtualized their servers. Over one-quarter (29%) of companies have virtualized storage, and 25% have virtualized their network, while one-fifth have implemented managed services or colocation models. Cloud projects received the least attention, with the implementation of a hybrid cloud model at the bottom of the list, with only 10% of firms having done so - although another 24% rolling it out.

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Future Implementation / upgrade plans


Virtualisation seen as way forward While server and storage virtualization projects will be to the fore in 2013, a growing proportion of businesses (32%) will be virtualizing their networks in 2013, as will the proportion (28%) who are virtualizing desktops and laptops. The project with the least interest was the implementation of the public cloud with only 20% of firms pursuing this in 2013. By the end of 2014, around 1 in 2 companies will have embarked on a virtualisation implementation or upgrade project and most likely will do so to drive cost efficiencies

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Extent of virtualisation
Mobile devices have most room to be virtualised While increasing numbers of Asian businesses are virtualizing datacenter components, that doesnt mean they have virtualized all their hardware. On average, businesses have virtualized 41% of their server environment, 38% of storage and 34% of their network infrastructure. The segment which received the least attention is tablets/smartphones with only 23% of firms having virtualized those devices. That will most likely increase with the BYOD trend becoming more prevalent. Allowing employees to do so is increasingly seen as a way to retain talent.

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Cloud
Role with responsibility for private cloud
Senior IT management have biggest say in private cloud Senior IT Management own private cloud in the majority of organizations (55%), while in 18% of businesses the responsibility sits with an IT Infrastructure role. In 10% of organizations senior management (i.e. C-level staff) hold responsibility. Thats typically in firms with fewer than 100 employees.

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Role with responsibility for public cloud


CIO, CTO most commonly manage public cloud Typically, the same job roles hold responsibility for public cloud as they do for private cloud. There is no apparent change to a more devolved model where CXOs and Line of Business heads take direct responsibility for SaaS application solutions specific to their functions. In simple terms, this suggests the responsibility for acquiring and managing services like CRM and finance applications via public cloud rests largely with the CIO rather than the sales chief or CFO.

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Cloud External ICT spending 2013 v. 2012


Smallest budget increase among all categories The average increase in the cloud budget in 2013 is 16%. Average spending increases are lower (13%) in larger organizations (500+ staff). The spending sentiment on cloud is the lowest among the six categories in the survey. This reflects other findings showing how ongoing and planned IT projects are generally more geared towards virtualization of hardware instead of (or as a prelude to) cloud deployment.

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Most important cloud project in 2013


Private cloud most significant initiative Private cloud projects are most important in 2013. Almost half the organizations (44%) working on cloud projects rate private cloud their most important cloud initiative. These are typically embraced most by data sensitive sectors such as financial services and healthcare. However, the combined focus on public cloud variants (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) shows thats also a major focus - 33% of organizations rate one of the public cloud variants as their most important 2013 cloud initiative. When we sum the proportions prioritising public and hybrid cloud, 52% of businesses say some form of public cloud is important to their business. Interest in hybrid cloud implementation (19%) was ranked second, and the result echoes the views of some industry pundits who predict 2013 to be year of the hybrid cloud due to an increase in vendor offerings and support.

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Business objectives of most important cloud project


Cost efficiencies the main driver Businesses say cost reductions are the most important objectives for their most important cloud project. 22% aim to cut costs in the business generally, 17% are looking for cost efficiencies through better hardware utilisation, and 10% are looking for cost efficiencies through automation in the datacentre. 16% are targeting increased sales most likely through the use of SaaS apps such as CRM, but possibly through the redeployment of cloud-initiated savings to other projects. Businesses agility is the key objective for cloud projects for 15% of organisations as they look to take advantage of the rapid deployment, scalability and pay-as-you go funding models of cloud architectures.

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Current Implementation Status


Private cloud a priority Organizations have prioritised private Cloud thus far, with one-half having either completed an implementation or partly done so (16% have implemented, 34% have an implementation underway). Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is the most common Public Cloud approach, and its likely many of these businesses use applications such as email and CRM via SaaS models. Around two-thirds of businesses have still to adopt public cloud. The least popular approach is Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) with only 8% having implemented it and another 24% rolling it out.

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Future Implementation / upgrade plans


Cloud to go mainstream in 2014

Between one-fifth and one-third of organizations are doing a Cloud project this year. This includes businesses that have a project underway and are continuing the implementation in 2013, and businesses that are starting a project sometime between January and December 2013). 2014 is the year when cloud becomes mainstream. By December 2014, 69% will have implemented private cloud, and just under 50% will have adopted SaaS, IaaS and Hybrid models.

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IT Security
Responsibility falls on senior IT management With the security landscape increasingly complex, organizations have tasked their senior IT management with ultimate responsibility for the IT security portfolio. Senior IT Management (specifically CIOs, CTOs and their direct reports) have responsibility for IT Security in one-half of organizations. 24% give the responsibility to Executive IT Management (CIOs, CTOSs), 20% to the IT Department manager, and 3% to each of IT Consultant and Project Management. Some 28% of organizations believe their security posture is closely linked to infrastructure, assigning responsibility in this area to their IT infrastructure staff. In 11% of businesses IT security lies in the hands of a security compliance/administrator/manager. This is more likely in larger companies 15.3% of businesses with 500 plus staff do so compared to 8.6% of businesses with less than 100 staff. For 7% of respondents, senior management (i.e. a C-level staff member) hold responsibility for the company's IT security well-being in 4% its the CEO, CFO etc, and in 3% the department head/director.

This finding is heartening since industry watchers recently mentioned in a ZDNet report that Asian companies are generally unprepared for cyber attacks compared to their American counterparts due to a lack of awareness from senior management. They say it will take at least 10 years before Asian companies catch up with the U.S. in terms of cyber security readiness partly due to lower awareness.

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Formalized security policies still not a business norm Despite increasingly sophisticated threats and rising adoption of bring-your-own-device (BYOD) in the workplace, 32% of organizations in the region still have not established proper security policies to safeguard their company's IT infrastructure. Also, a majority do not have ISO 27001 certification for Information Security Management System. One-third of businesses dont have a formal security policy Most companies (68%) have a formal IT security policy in place. However, almost one-third (32%) of organizations do not have a formal, documented security policy. These businesses risk the theft of important company data, and also are putting their stakeholders (customers, suppliers, etc.) in harm's way. Establishing formal security policies is especially pertinent in the BYOD era where more employees are now using their personal devices to carry out work-related tasks and access the corporate network. Security policies should include guidelines on what kinds of apps are off-limits, which devices the company is willing to support, and maintaining security patches.

Only a few organizations have ISO 27001 security certification Only 20% of organizations have ISO 27001 certification for Information Security Management System (ISMS), and 14% are currently working on acquiring this certification. Two-thirds (66%) of businesses dont have ISO 27001 certification.

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Business to spend more in 2013 to beef up IT security

It's perhaps comforting to know while not every company has formalized security policies, many indicate plans to increase the spending on IT security this year. Mid-size and smaller businesses are making larger IT security budget increases, which is catch-up activity on the larger organizations. Overall, respondents say their external spending on IT security will increase by 21% this year compared to 2012. Mid sized businesses (100 to 499 staff) on average will have the largest percentage increases at 25%. The average spending increase is lowest (18%) among larger organizations (500+ staff).

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Security zooms in on the network

Companies are looking to protect the network as their key security focus, which is in line with advice commonly dished out by IT security vendors. However, with the rising adoption of BYOD, some believe attention should also be given to protecting employees' mobile devices. Increasingly so, it will be necessary to protect both the device and network, along with enforcing user policies, to keep the corporate infrastructure and data safe. Almost one-third of businesses say traditional network/perimeter security is their most important IT security initiative this year despite the range of new security challenges they face. Reflecting the widespread adoption of virtualisation, one-quarter of organizations say security for virtualised environments is their most important focus. The emergence of mobility and BYOD are reflected in the 16% who say security for mobile devices is their most important IT security focus in 2013. Other businesses (14%) are giving attention to cloud security, specifically private and hybrid cloud architectures. Another 7% are putting their security focus on public clouds.

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Security goals also linked to sales

Security initiatives are mostly undertaken as part of the company's aim to beef up the overall ICT infrastructure. Others, though, indicate their security projects are carried out to boost sales. Some 37% of respondents say improving security of the ICT environment is the key objective for deploying their most important IT Security project. 13% say increasing sales is a key objective. That may appear a rather surprising answer, but it likely refers to improving the security of online transactions with customers an outcome that will increase customer confidence and consequently sales. Businesses are also looking for cost efficiencies in their security implementations.

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Perimeter security and security for private/hybrid cloud most widely deployed

While the majority have either deployed or are currently deploying network security, fewer have done likewise to secure their cloud infrastructure thus far. However, over one-half of organizations with private and public cloud have a cloud security implementation in progress. The majority of businesses (62%) have implemented or partly implemented (24%) traditional network/perimeter security. But 14% mostly smaller businesses - have not yet done so (22% of businesses with <100 staff have not implemented). 30% of organizations that use private/hybrid cloud have deployed security capabilities, and 51% are in the process of implementing security for their private/hybrid cloud. Thats the same proportion of businesses implementing security for public cloud. There is also activity in implementing security for those with virtualized environments. 28% have already implemented and 39% have partly implemented or have a project in progress. For those using mobile computing, 25% have implemented mobile device management, and 40% are implementing a project, leaving 35% yet to do so. This is somewhat worrying amid the increasing BYOD trend. As more employees use their personal mobile devices to access corporate data and network, companies can ill-afford to neglect the need for mobile security tools.

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Future implementation / upgrade plans


Most businesses give cloud security a pass Asian organizations have a lot of project activity on their plates this year: over onethird (37%) have an implementation or upgrade for network/perimeter security. Another 21% will stretch such plans into 2014. 32% will implement security for virtualized environments this year, with 22% planning similar projects for 2014. Around one-quarter will do so for mobile device management, but 47% have no plans to implement such tools. Again, the seemingly lack of plans in the mobile security space is worrying, given the increasing adoption of BYOD. Most companies also are choosing to give cloud security a miss, with 54% and 61% having no plans to implement security technologies for private/hybrid and public clouds, respectively. This is especially worrying as security vendors caution that cloud computing brings along high security risks including data breaches and loss, heightens the risk of insider threats, as well as increases the possibility of denial of service attacks.

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Analytics
Role with responsibility for Analytics
Data intelligence goes to the top Much has been said about analytics and big data and their potential to provide richer insights into customers, markets and the general business environment. Small wonder then senior IT executives have been tasked to oversee their company's data analytics. Senior IT Management have responsibility for analytics/big data in 50% of organizations. IT Infrastructure staff have responsibility in 20% of organizations, and senior management in 9%. In 9% of businesses, IT development roles are responsible for analytics/big data.

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Analytics External ICT spending 2013 v. 2012


All company sizes up spending on intelligence
Overall, external spending on analytics / big data will increase by 20% this year compared to 2012. This is pretty much the same across the board, regardless of company size. The budgets at medium and large business will go up by 19% while smaller businesses have set aside slightly more, increasing their analytics / big data budgets 20%.

It is clear that big data analytics aren't just for large enterprises. Software vendors including Intuit, SAS, IBM and Oracle all offer services that target small and midsize businesses. Market estimates put global spending on big data at US$34 billion this year, up from US$28 billion in 2012.

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Most important Analytics project in 2013


Traditional analytics tools still the preferred way
Despite the growing number of new analytic tools touted by vendors to tap big data, companies in the region are sticking to the tried and tested. The majority are choosing to focus their analytics initiatives on traditional tools. 38% of businesses say traditional analytics tools (e.g. OLAP, RDBMS and data warehouse) are their most important analytics/big data initiatives this year. Almost one-third (31%) say next generation data warehouse projects are their most important, indicating these have most traction in the new big data market. Apache Hadoop and packaged big data appliances (often incorporating Hadoop) are considered important by fewer businesses (13% and 11% respectively).

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Business objectives of most important Analytics project


Gaining agility through intelligence
By generating intelligence from their data, companies are hoping to be able to move more quickly and boost sales. The most important outcomes for analytics / big data projects are: build a more agile business model (16%), increase sales (14%), cut costs in the business (14%), and better understand markets (13%). Its surprising that increasing customer intimacy was rated most important outcome by no more than 5% of businesses, despite the oft-cited benefit of improving customer service and satisfaction through better insights. At a late 2012 ZDNet panel discussion on big data, panelists described data as the "new natural resource" for Singapore companies. It provides competitive advantage and offers another level of insights to support business decisions. Panelists added that the true potential of big data comes from the ability to combine an organization's own data with data outside the company's firewall. However, questions remain over the extent to which companies can justifiably tap the data, amid concerns over user privacy and data regulations.

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Current Implementation Status


Most have some form of analytics
40% have already implemented traditional analytics tools and a further 31% have an implementation underway. When these are completed, close to three-quarters of businesses will have analytics capabilities in place. Packaged big data appliances and next generation data warehouses are each implemented at 14% of organizations. Close to one-third have implementations of the latter underway. Hadoop is implemented at 10% of businesses, although implementations are proceeding at a further 25%. Vendors such as Intel, EMC and Red Hat see market opportunities in Hadoop. Intel, for instance, recently launched its distribution for Hadoop in the Asia-Pacific region, singling out telcos and governments as two segments which will benefit from the open source data tool.

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Future Implementation / upgrade plans


Upgrade plans focus on traditional analytics
One-third of businesses are working on a project in traditional analytics tools this year, with another 23 percent planning a similar initiative for 2014. 20% of organizations will execute projects this year in next generation data warehouses, Hadoop and packaged big data appliances In 2014, between 20% to 26% of businesses will work on projects using non-traditional analytics tools.

Industry analysts are expecting focus on business analytics to grow, and software vendors also are upping their play in the business analytics space. IBM, for instance, has unveiled plans to set up a business analytics innovation centre in Thailand which it says will offer high-value analytics products to local customers and those in the Southeast Asian region. The rise of social networks in Asia such as China's Sina Weibo also has prompted the need for multilingual analytics and native-language data processing capabilities. Salesforce.com, for example, has said it is focusing heavily on multilingual analytic tools and recently included 20 analytics service providers to its Marketing Cloud platform which will offer native language analytic tools.

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Networking / Communications
Role with responsibility for Network / communications
Senior IT people own the network

Senior IT Management are responsible for networking and communications in 46 percent of organizations surveyed, followed by IT infrastructure (31%) and, senior management (7%).

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Network / communications budgets 2013 v. 2012


Networking/communications budgets up by one-fifth Overall, respondents say Networking/Communications budgets will increase by 21% this year compared to 2012. Midsized organizations, (100 to 499 staff) say their networking/communications budgets will rise by 22% in 2013. Smaller companies (less than 100 employees) expect their budgets to rise by 21%. Budgets at organizations with more than 500 employees will rise by 20%.

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Most important Network / communications project in 2013


Network management projects key in 2013 Over one-quarter of businesses (26%) say network management is their most important networking initiative this year. This is twice the number of the second most common priority collaboration tools (12%). WAN optimization, network virtualization and load balancing are each priority projects for 10% of businesses. IDC's latest research on video conferencing equipment revenue, immersive telepresence systems revenue fell 32.8 percent. Simple collaborative tools such as Web meetings and screen sharing seem to be enough to satisfy office workers.

The low priority put on Telepresence supports recent market analysis. According to

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Business objectives of most important Network / communications project


Cost management in vogue Organizations say their primary objective from networking initiatives is cost management. 20% say cost efficiencies from better ICT utilization is important, and 18% aim to cut costs in the business. Building a more agile business model (10% of respondents) and increasing sales (also 10%) are also common objectives. With the uncertain global economy, it's no surprise cutting costs, ensuring cost efficiencies and increasing sales are the key priorities of any technologies companies invest in.

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Current Implementation Status


Network management remains a big focus
The most widely deployed technology is network management. 46% have already implemented it and 37% say it is partly implemented. Load balancing and collaboration tools are already widely deployed or partly deployed, and a majority of businesses have deployed or partly deployed VOIP (62%) and WAN optimization (55%). One-quarter have implemented are in the process of implementing Ethernet fabric and network virtualization. Less than one-quarter of organizations have already implemented TelePresence, network virtualization and software defined networking (SDN), but around the same proportions have an implementation underway.

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Future Implementation / upgrade plans


Network management, collaboration tools, load balancing are the 2013 priorities In 2013, Network management projects are most prevalent (40% are doing a project), followed by collaboration tools (32%) and load balancing (29%). As these are currently the most widely deployed networking technologies, its clear that implementations are never one-offs. Like many technologies, its often necessary to upgrade or extend the capabilities of deployed capabilities. VOIP is also on the menu for 2013, with 28% of organizations doing an implementation or upgrade. Software defined networking (SDN) and VoWLAN projects are the least common, with 18% of organizations each planning to implement or upgrade the technologies. Only 21% and 20% of organizations plan to implement SDN and VoWLAN respectively. SDN is one of two technologies, together with VoWLAN, that have lowest project activity this year. According to Accenture's Technology Vision 2013 report, SDN requires tools and frameworks that are still developing. Implementation is also time consuming and expensive. This could be deterring companies from deploying it.

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End User Computing


Role with responsibility for end user computing
48% of organizations state senior IT Management are responsible for end user computing, while IT infrastructure staff do so in 13% of businesses, and IT service in 11%.

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End user computing External ICT spending 2013 v. 2012


End user computing budgets going up by 21% Overall, respondents say their external spending on end user computing will increase by 21% in 2013 compared to 2012. Small and medium businesses will increase by 21%, while larger businesses will increase budgets on end user computing by 19%.

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Primary desktop/laptop operating system

Business computing continues to rely on Microsofts operating systems for the desktop/laptop. 95% of businesses say their primary operating systems is from Microsoft, with 61% using Windows 7. Windows XP is still the main operating system in 27% of businesses, while Windows 8 has made limited headway since its launch in late 2012. It is not surprising that only 5 percent of organizations are using Microsoft Windows 8, which was only launched in the latter half of 2012. Windows 8 has not been well received either by consumers or enterprises. Its touch version is more popular among users compared to its desktop version. Even when touch versions are used in organizations, it is generally in roles such as sales, which are not desk bound. Linux (3%) and Apple (2%) predominate in very few organizations. The popularity of Linux over Windows Vista and Apple OS X could also be due to its operating systems being used in Nexus 7, which has been adopted by some businesses.

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Current Implementation Status


Desktop PCs and traditional laptops remain the dominant end-user computing tool. Desktops and traditional laptops are deployed in more than 70% of businesses. Tablets (deployed in 28% of businesses) outnumber ultrabooks (23%), and that will continue to be so after completion of deployments in progress. Laser printers are deployed in more organizations than inkjets. Smartphone and tablet deployments are the two most common current implementations. This reflects the increased utilisation of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy within organizations, which look for productivity and efficiency gains among employees. Tablets and smartphones both outnumber Ultrabooks. While many businesses perceive Ultrabook performance to be good the trade-off in battery life can be a turn-off for some organizations. Laser printers are being implemented more than Inkjet printers within organizations due to efficiency and quality. This is consistent with recent IDC report showing laser printer growth of 0.8 percent in the second quarter of 2012 while inkjet printer shipments fell 12.7 percent, the largest drop since Q3 2009. Indeed Lexmark is terminating the manufacturing of Inkjet printers.

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Future Implementation / upgrade plans


Businesses arent walking away from Desktop PCs and traditional laptops any time soon Almost one-half 46% and 45% of organizations are respectively doing implementations or upgrades of desktops and laptops projects this year. 35% of businesses and will do smartphone projects in 2013, and 34% will do tablet projects. 34% will also deploy laser printers The least popular end user computing technologies are inkjet printers and Ultrabooks, adopted only by 29% and 26% of organizations respectively. Its possible 2014 will be a tipping point for Ultrabooks deployments in business. 20% have plans for Ultrabook technology refresh and upgrade in 2014. This exceeds the percentage of organizations with plans for desktop and traditional PCs/notebook projects.

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Methodology and Respondents


Introduction
In February 2013, ZDNet Asia launched the IT Priorities survey to our registered members via eDM and on-site promotional tactics. Fieldwork continued until the end of the month. The respondents are IT leaders and IT professionals who regularly visit the ZDNet Asia and Tech Republic websites.

Respondent Demographics
Respondent Location

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Respondent Organization Size

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