Study conducted on behalf of Microsoft by Harris Interactive Inc. Study conducted on behalf of Microsoft by Harris Interactive, Inc. Study conducted on.

Study conducted on behalf of Microsoft by Harris Interactive Inc.Study conducted on behalf of Microsoft by Harris Interactive Inc.Study conducted on behalf of Microsoft by Harris Interactive Inc.

Study conducted on behalf of Microsoft by Harris Interactive, Inc.

Study conducted on behalf of Microsoft by Harris Interactive Inc.

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Base: All RespondentsQ716: Thinking about the allocation of your 2009 IT budget, what % of total dollars are allocated to innovation, and what % is allocated to "keeping the lights on"?

In 2009, IT professionals will allocate 37% of their budget to innovation and 63% to just keeping the lights on.Organizations in the U.S. allocate a significantly smaller portion of their budget toward innovation (29%) than companies in the U.K., Germany, or Japan.

2009 Budget Allocation Across 4 countries

(n=1200)

35%A

65%BC

Germany (D)(n=281)

Innovation Keeping the lights on

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Base: All Respondents (n= 1,200)Q710: In the current economic downturn, which of the following fits most closely with your priorities as an IT decision maker?

IT pros prioritize driving business efficiency (48%) above simply reducing IT costs (30%). One in five organizations (22%) goes beyond efficiency to focus their IT efforts on giving the business a competitive advantage.

IT Priorities(n=1200)

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Impact of the Current Economy on Role Of IT: SMB vs. the Enterprise

The economy’s impact on the role of IT follows the same pattern across company sizes, but the role of IT in enterprise organizations is impacted by the down market to a significantly greater extent.

The top key measures of success for IT professionals are practical ones:

Network security (79% rate as mostly or extremely important)Customer satisfaction (79%)

Measures of success related to growing and driving the business—including market share (50%), customer growth (62%), and business enablement (60%)—fall lower in the order of priorities.

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Base: All Qualified Respondents (n= 1,200)Q701/702: What do you view as the key measures of success for your company?Scale: 1 (Extremely unimportant) to 6 (Extremely important).

Key Measures of Success% “mostly” or “extremely”

important(n=1200)

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Base: All Respondents (n= 1,200)Q720: If you were suddenly given a 10 percent boost in your budget to spend on trying to drive value in your organization, which of the following would you invest in first?

Investment of budget surplus(n=1200)

32% of IT professionals believe that an investment in upgrading existing software and applications would be the best way to drive value in their organization.

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Base: All Respondents (n= 1,200)Q865: If you had an extra hour in your working day, what would you prefer to spend it on?

IT professionals would take advantage of an extra hour in their work day to make their systems work together more efficiently (38%) or increase the collaboration between IT and the business (31%).

Use of an Extra Hour in the Day(n=1200)

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Base: All Respondents (n= 1,200)Q810/811: How important is it to your business to find a credible partner to support you on each of the following activities?Scale: 1 (Extremely Unimportant) to 6 (Extremely important)

Support from a Credible Partner

% “mostly” or “extremely” important(n=1200)

IT professionals with higher levels of decision-making responsibility are significantly more likely to appreciate the support of a partner in all aspects of their jobs.

Security is the number one challenge in managing infrastructure for both Enterprise and SMB organizations (60%).Other potential pitfalls do not rise above a “midsize challenge” for the majority of IT professionals.Enterprises report significantly greater challenges with Resource Utilization, Interoperability, and Sprawling Data Centers.

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Base: All Qualified Respondents (n= 1,200)Q745/746: How would you rate each of the following challenges you might face in managing your infrastructure?Scale: 1 (Not at all a challenge) to 6 (The biggest challenge).

Infrastructure Management Challenges

% “big” or “the biggest” challenge(n=1200)

Traditional operations-based IT security roles including identity management and remote access are widely recognized across the board.More than half of IT professionals see a broader role for IT security that includes advancing overall business goals (52%) and increasing end-user productivity (51%).

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Base: All Respondents (n= 1,200)Q790/791: To what extent do you agree that each of the following are roles of IT security?

Role of IT Security(n=1200)

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Base: All Respondents (n= 1,200)Q780/781: Please rate the following security priorities based on their importance to your organization over the next 1-3 years.Scale: 1 (Extremely unimportant) to 6 (Extremely important).

Security Priorities% “mostly” or “extremely”

important(n=1200)

Protection of customer and company data (73%) and Security systems management (65%) are the top security priorities for IT professionals in the next 1 to 3 years. Enterprise IT professionals are significantly more concerned than their SMB counterparts with all aspects of security except hosted services, which is less of a concern for both.

Enterprise IT professionals in particular see the current economy as an opportunity for increased investment in virtualization (45%).IT professionals in SMB are somewhat more willing to hold off on cloud computing than their larger counterparts.

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Base: All Qualified Respondents Q725/726: Given the economy, what are your plans for investing in each of the following technologies?

-14%

-11%

-4%

-10%

68%

66%

61%

44%

18%

23%

35%

45%B

Cloud Computing

Systems Management Software

Security

Virtualization

Enterprise (A)(n

Invest less Maintain Invest more

Investment in Technology

© 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, Windows Vista and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries.The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market

conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after the date of this presentation. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

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