Another Wan Year For IT Spending In U.S.

European IT execs are showing more optimism than those in the United States, according to the Technology Confidence Barometer compiled by research firm RoperNOP. European companies are predicting a 6.8% increase in IT spending next year versus a 5.9% increase expected here.

There's more evidence of pessimism domestically when the numbers are compared with those collected just six months ago. U.S. IT buyers then expected a 7.7% increase in 2003 IT spending, while Europeans foresaw only a 6% bump.

Our overseas mates are spending their dollars in different places, too, according to RoperNOP, which, like InformationWeek, is owned by United Business Media. Security products are expected to see the greatest spending increase, both here and in Europe: 8.6% more in the United States and 8.4% more in Europe. Yet Europe will increase spending by larger amounts in areas such as virtual private networks. VPNs will see an 8.3% increase there, compared with 6.7% here. High-speed data transmission is picked to grow 7.7% across the Atlantic and 6.5% at home.

U.S. execs do expect to outspend their European counterparts in storage, however: a 6.6% jump here versus 4.5% in Europe.

Slower growing areas for both regions include:

• Outsourcing (1.4% in the United States; 0.9% in Europe)

• Middleware, (2.6% in the United States: 1.9% in Europe)