In today’s economic climate, IT and security budget owners are always looking for ways to increase efficiency while controlling costs. With tighter budgets and increasing workloads, organizations have to find ways of stretching their limited resources while making sure investments are paying off. To learn more about the challenges that IT organizations are facing, Cribl recently partnered with an independent market research firm called CITE Research to survey 250 IT and Security professionals who have budget authority.

Our survey was conducted late last year, and the respondents were selected based on certain screening criteria: director-level and above positions, roles within IT, Security, or the C-Suite, and organizations with revenue of over $100M. Of the survey respondents, 44% were C-level, while 36% were Directors. The industries represented in the survey included banking and financial services, communications, energy and utilities, healthcare, manufacturing and logistics, media and entertainment, retail, and technology. A majority of those surveyed had revenues exceeding $500 million, while around a third generated over $1 billion.

Download our free report “Top Five Trends for Security and IT Budget Owners” to dive deeper into the data.

TL:DR: What Are the Key Results?

According to the survey data, cybersecurity is the top area of investment for IT and Security budget owners over the next 12 months. 95% of respondents expect to increase their investments in cybersecurity, with the top projects including buying rather than building (62%), investing in automation across infrastructure and cybersecurity (54%)—and accelerating cloud migrations.

While business owners are shifting their focus from pure cost-cutting measures to strategic technology investments, staffing and training remain a low priority. The survey found that 36% of respondents will reduce budgets for staffing and training, which means that workloads will continue to increase while human resources do not. This can limit an organization’s ability to attract and retain qualified staff members. It also reduces the chance of successfully defending against cyber attacks.

“Both IT staff and decision-makers are overwhelmed with work demands. It’s sort of a chicken and egg scenario—decision-makers are using increasing workloads as an excuse not to authorize training, and staff are struggling to complete assignments because they lack the proper skills.”

On the IT side, budget reductions can lead to a reduction in the amount of data ingested and security modernization being put on hold. The IT and Security budget owners looking to consolidate tool sets in order to operate more cost-effectively. 57% of respondents are considering consolidating their data processing vendors, with a preference for vendors that provide the most value.

Does Automation Address Budget Challenges?

Because of budget challenges and rising concerns about quality, automation has become a more common way for companies to improve productivity. IT and Security budget owners are looking to leverage SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response), low-code application platforms, and test automation to reduce costs. Monitoring and observability are the areas least likely to be impacted by budget cuts.

“We have had budget cuts to almost everything due to the recession, including our new employee hiring budget. I just don’t understand how we are supposed to go recruit new talent for the ones we have lost/are losing without a proper budget to do so.”

How Does Cribl Help?

IT and Security budget owners are facing a challenging environment as they try to make strategic investments in efficiency while also reducing budgets in certain areas. Cribl’s solutions are an invaluable resource for IT and Security budget owners, who must contend with economic uncertainty, tight budgets, and increasing workloads.

Cribl enables teams to reduce data volume, control cost and maximize existing investments by allowing budget owners to make strategic decisions about efficiency and prioritize cybersecurity.

Cribl’s vendor-agnostic observability solutions ensure that the enterprise remains future-proof and adaptable to staffing and skills shortages, as well as tool consolidation. Because of its flexibility, Cribl is an invaluable tool for IT and security executives who are looking to meet business goals while staying within budget.

Download our free report “Top Five Trends for Security and IT Budget Owners” to dive deeper into the data.