Quick Study: IT Budgets and Cost Management

IT leaders face a bigger challenge than they have encountered in recent years regarding cost management and IT budgeting. Leaders aren’t just dealing with new technologies such as artificial intelligence; their organizations are in flux, as is the workplace they support.

We’ve collected a variety of InformationWeek articles that offer advice on managing IT spending now and in the year ahead.

Budget Tips and Tricks

Doing More With Less: How to Survive an IT Budget Cut

When the budget axe swings, leaders, teams, and projects all feel the impact. Even if nothing can be done to slow the blow, it still may be possible to soften the impact.

Looking to Cut Your Budget? Don’t Skimp on Innovation

As companies continue to feel economic pressures in the new year, budget cuts may be inevitable, but skimping on IT can hinder growth.

CFOs and IT Spending: Best Practices for Cost-Cutting

CFOs must proactively address the challenge of identifying outdated or redundant technologies that are driving up IT spending.

How to Prepare Your IT Organization for a Possible Recession

Suppose that the global economy still falls into a recession. It's never too early to begin developing a contingency plan.

How to Downsize IT With Minimal Damage

Facing a sagging economy, many enterprises are downsizing their operations. This leaves IT leaders with the task of shrinking their departments without sacrificing performance or security.

Politics From the IT Engine Room

In the early days, IT was called “data processing” and was under finance. IT has evolved, but in too many cases IT is still viewed as a back-office cost center.

10 Ways to Run a Very Lean IT Operation

You have plenty of ideas for IT, but your department’s budget and on-staff skills are limited. What should you do when you’re running a very lean IT group?

Doing More With Less: A Guide for IT Leaders

In the ‘Year of Efficiency,’ IT leaders must balance innovation and frugality and navigate with proven solutions, explore alternatives, and embrace all-in-ones.

IT Budgets: Can You Tell a Good Story?

2023 is shaping up to be a less robust spending year for IT budgets. In this environment, IT leaders will have to work harder to sell projects.

CIOs and Cutting IT Bloat: Forming a Plan

Chief information officers and other key stakeholders first need to identify the bleeding tech causing the bloat, then create a roadmap on what aspects of the tech bloat can be reduced.

CIOs: Stop Spending on Bad Tech

US IT departments waste $85B yearly on bad tech. Chief information officers must assess their tech stack to prevent deeper debt and the potential added cost of attrition.

Why IT Should Have a Separate Training Budget

Having a training budget has its positives and negatives, but based on my experience, it’s more beneficial for IT to fund and determine its own training needs.

IT Budgets in the Face of a Recession: How to Plan

Planning an IT budget against the backdrop of a possible recession requires businesses to re-prioritize spending initiatives and closely monitor ROI.

Spending on Key Technologies – Cloud

How to Trim Your Cloud Budget

The cloud has changed IT infrastructure budgeting and made cost control dramatically more complex. Here’s how to keep ‘cloudflation’ from busting your budget.

Can You Renegotiate Your Cloud Bill by Refusing to Pay It?

Twitter has reportedly withheld payment to Google Cloud as it haggles over price. Is it a risk for other companies to try such methods?

3 Key Cloud Computing Trends to Consider When Planning Your IT Budget

As remote and hybrid work rises in popularity, so will the adoption of technologies that prioritize agile, secure end-user computing.

How to Maximize Your Organization's Cloud Budget

Tired of sky-high cloud costs, but you know that the cloud represents the future? Here are some suggestions for bringing your cloud spending back down to earth.

4 Cost-Saving Strategies to Optimize Your SaaS Budget

C-suite executives and IT leaders must be vigilant when it comes to understanding cost inefficiencies and wasted spend. Here are some strategies to reel in SaaS spending.

How to Budget Effectively for Multi-Cloud

Leveraging multiple clouds can lead to greater efficiency, flexibility, and cost savings, but only if you support the effort with a well-planned budget.

Managing Cloud: Why to Keep a Data Center Mentality

The move of more compute to the cloud and the edge has many organizations rethinking their need for data centers -- yet data centers aren’t going away and neither should "data center thinking."

10 Cloud Strategies to Avoid Cost Overruns

If optimizing your cloud spending is on your to-do list this year, these tips could help you stay within budget.

CIOs Turn to the Cloud as Tech Budgets Come Under Scrutiny

With a lot of uncertainty still ahead, businesses that can invest in flexible systems, like the cloud, should do so -- but chief information officers must deploy resources tactically.

Spending on Key Technologies – Security

Security Top IT Investment Priority in 2023

Chief information security officers must develop a comprehensive security investment strategy that considers human capital, even while qualified IT security professionals are in short supply.

How Not to Waste Money on Cybersecurity

Security should be every enterprise’s top priority. Just remember that simply throwing money at the problem isn't the answer.

How to Develop and Maximize an Effective Cybersecurity Budget

CISOs are at the forefront of securing an adequate budget for cybersecurity. Five leaders share their advice about budgeting challenges and strategies.

Optimizing Your Cybersecurity Budget

Strong cybersecurity comes at a price. The exact amount depends on your risk tolerance and factors such as past incidents, current security issues, and future plans.

CISO Budget Constraints Drive Consolidation of Security Tools

The consolidation of security tools onto platforms may become a budgetary necessity but also offers opportunities for the highly fragmented nature of IT security.

Spending on Key Technologies – AI and Automation

CIOs Battle Growing IT Costs with Tools, Leadership

Tech leaders are turning to automation and better budget planning to carefully allocate budgets as the cost of IT rises.

$10 Million AI on a $2 Budget

The recent consumerization of artificial intelligence means that companies can unlock valuable new use cases, even if they lack pricey data scientists and high-performance infrastructure.

IT Spending Today

As Inflation Skyrockets, Is Now the Time to Pull Back on New IT Initiatives?

With inflation and supply chain issues, the prices of just about everything are soaring. So it is with hardware and software prices. Is now a good time to push forward or pull back on projects?

Top Business Needs Driving IT Spending Today

Cutting costs alone won’t save the company in times of economic crisis. The options for IT leaders are limited. So, what will help?