Research Slideshow: Gartner's CIO Agenda: Cloud Computing Tops the List

Flat budgets

IT budgets are expected to increase by just 1% in 2011, compared to 2010.

Wait for 2014

Based on the results of its findings, Gartner says IT budgets will not achieve their 2008 highs in again until 2014.

3%

Today, just 3% of respondents have "the majority of IT running in the cloud or on SaaS technologies."

43%

In as little as four years, Gartner expects 43% of companies to have most of their IT efforts running in the cloud.

Top priority

Due to that expected growth in cloud computing, Gartner ranks cloud computing as the No. 1 CIO tech priority in 2011.

Virtualization

Investments in virtualization will be the No. 2 tech priority for CIOs in 2011, Gartner reports.

Mobile technologies

Investments in mobile technologies will prove to be No. 3 tech priority for CIOS in 2011, according to Gartner.

Untapped resources

The addition of Web-based services in companies could open up 35% to 50% of resources, Gartner reports.

Straight to mobile

Companies competing with China-based firms beware: Gartner believes CIOs in that country will "leapfrog" technologies in the coming years and focus more of their efforts on "mobility- and services-type models," rather than traditional technologies.