In a recent survey of large European firms, Forrester Research (www.forrester.com) found that infrastructure consolidation will be a top priority during the next 12 months.

Security and disaster recovery upgrades are also high on the priority list. In its report "European Enterprises' 2005 IT Priorities," Forrester Research analyzes the survey results and discusses the implications for IT vendors.

Manuel Méndez, Associate Analyst, Technology Leadership at Forrester Research, says: "In 2005's modest IT spending environment, technology vendors need to understand enterprises' IT priorities or face a challenging year. Infrastructure consolidation will be a high priority for 63% of enterprises during the next 12 months. Therefore, infrastructure management vendors like IBM Tivoli, Computer Associates, HP, and BMC Software will increase their automation oriented offerings."

According to Forrester, the consolidation of IT infrastructure is driven by business users' needs for flexible IT.

With IT working on consolidating existing fragmented infrastructure, security spending will gain more IT budget attention, increasing from 7% to 10% of the total IT budget in less than a year.

As large European enterprises prioritize their IT infrastructure consolidation activities in 2005, Forrester expects that infrastructure managers will find it easier to translate their consolidation efforts into benefits and as a result management vendor consolidation to accelerate.

According to another research authority, IDC (www.idc.com), It is expected tech marketing dudgets to Increase 3% on Average in the First Half of 2005 with some vendors increasing spending 15% or more.

IDC's CMO Advisory research service projects that the marketing budgets of IT vendors will increase by an average of 3% during the first six months of 2005.

IDC predicts that marketing spending may accelerate during the remainder of 2005, depending on overall IT spending levels, which are a leading indicator of marketing investment increases.

The research company is forecasting a 6% increase in worldwide IT spending for 2005.

In addition to these spending trends, IDC's latest research sees a new breed of technology marketing leaders emerging. "Marketing leaders view their role as the 'Voice of the Customer' during product and strategy discussions. They share a seat at the table with the CEO, they are empowered with appropriate resources and resource increase, and they run an efficient and accountable marketing organization," said Michael Gerard, research director for IDC's CMO Advisory Research Service.

In the new report, 2005 Tech Marketing Barometer: Marketing Leaders Expand their Charter, IDC analyzes the level and direction of overall tech marketing spending to help guide IDC clients with their marketing investment and allocation decisions.

This study includes information collected from surveys and interviews with senior marketing leadership at 66 hardware, software and information technology services vendors, as well as telecommunications service providers.

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