So far this year things have been looking up for the IT industry, but market fundamentals have shifted and spending has been in disarray.

The global recession has changed the priorities in IT and one of the key changes has focused on cloud options and whether investments into internal data centers is really the way forward.

"2010 has brought increased spending as we begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel, however budgets will continue to remain tight, spending the right money in the right places will make the difference" states the conglomerate of leading CIOs who have formed the CIO US action committee to create a focused spending strategy.

Spending took a dramatic fall in 2009 compared to that in 2008, but conservation of funds will mean that 2010 will be the year to push forward and implement new and ever evolving technology. After reviews on first quarter spending, a report from Forrester analyst Andrew Bartels predicted that IT spending for the year will reach in excess of US$753 billion (£493 billion), a 9.9 percent increase from 2009. That is also a bump up from the 8.4 percent increase Forrester was predicting in April.

Those technologies, which saw the most capital investment, focused on lowering operating costs, increasing productivity and streamlining the business processes.  This has lead to projects such as server virtualization laying the groundwork for more strategic IT initiatives creating a building block for cloud methodology.

In 2010, we can finally see the move from cutting IT spending to investment into business growing technology. Representatives from Adecco Group N.A. - Bryan Ackermann, CIO, American Express - Jan Belt, SVP Enterprise Infrastructure, JPMorgan Chase - Jason Mills, VP Technology Infrastructure and Citigroup Inc. - Atul Jain, Executive SVP Technology have been asked to review which technologies and systems should receive the greatest investment. This will be from both a governmental and private body perspective. At the CIO US summit (hosted by GDS International) execs will also reveal the benefits they have seen over the first half of 2010, from green technology implementation such as cloud computing and virtual services.

Budgets have been tight and spending has been capped, but new opportunities are on the horizon.  Company savings and forward thinking business can be one and the same, promising growth and innovation throughout the year.