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Survivor's Guide to 2005: Business Strategies

Posted by Tim Wilson on December 17, 2004

		2005 Survivor's Guide • Introduction • Business Strategies • Security • Network and Systems   Management • Mobile & Wireless • Digital Convergence • Business Applications • Infrastructure • Storage and Servers • Special SMBs More • Companies to Watch in '05 • What's Hot/Not in '05

For Jim Speer, director of IS at Talley Defense Systems, money will be the hardest to come by, at least until there is an upswing in customer demand. "The economic climate will be the same next year as this year," he says. "Our business is still being impacted by the economy."

Other IT executives say the biggest challenge will be security. "We will consume a great deal of time and other resources in improving our security structures," says Charles Tuite, operations coordinator at Ball State University. "It will involve a total re-evaluation of the users' needs, the system requirements and the overall architecture."

Still others say that 2005's greatest challenge will be a shortage of trained IT staff. Nearly all the IT administrators we interviewed for this story agree that projects tied to compliance with HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley and industry-specific regulations will divert people from day-to-day operations and new business projects.

Most IT organizations will spend more in 2005 than they did in 2004, but just barely.