Titled ‘The CIO Roadmap to Recovery’, the report summarizes the key CIO challenges in 2010 and the need for businesses to transform into leaner, greener, yet more flexible and business centered units. The report provides a detailed analysis and action plan of how CIOs and IT professionals can use limited funds in targeted, specific areas to derive the greatest possible strategic business value from IT in the most cost effective way.

“CIOs are challenged with flat IT budgets while managing the surge of data. As businesses gradually move towards recovery, CIOs need to take a hard and in-depth look at the areas that contribute towards building a resilient IT framework that will deliver results and help organizations to succeed during an upturn. Hitachi Data Systems is focused on helping companies to drive redundant costs out of their storage implementation by utilizing existing assets. Strategic use of technologies such as virtualization and dynamic provisioning automate performance and increase utilization, helping enterprises to align IT and business goals most effectively,” said Vivekanand Venugopal, Vice President & General Manager, India, Hitachi Data Systems.

The survey shed light on key CIO priorities for 2010 and cost management remains a perennial concern. With a growing expectation that IT organizations will shift from being a cost center to a profit center, a storage strategy that reduces OPEX is a top priority for APAC CIOs.

Reducing costs was highlighted again when the CIOs were asked on what they value most in their organization’s IT strategy and reducing operating costs headed the list (50 percent) beating technology implementation.

Mindset towards adopting new technology in Asia Pacific is high, as 73% of the CIOs expresses interest in pursuing new technology and be one of the first to use them. However in the same vein, almost 50% of the CIOs were of the opinion that the inability to calculate the financial benefits (Return on Investment) of an improved information infrastructure presents the highest barrier to investing in new information infrastructure.

The report provides valuable insights into how IT can be leveraged as a business enabler, sustainable IT strategies, and upcoming technologies on the block like cloud computing.

The survey was conducted when CIOs and senior IT representatives of top enterprises across Asia Pacific attended the Hitachi Data Systems Asia Pacific CIO Summit at Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, in early November. The Summit served as an opportunity for senior IT management from across the region to meet and share insights with each other on the upturn in the economy.