Gov't Tech Pros Fear Cuts Under Obama

More than half of tech workers at a recent government IT conference said they expect changes to technology directives from the new administration, and 47% predicted that their budgets would be affected by the weakened economy.

ScienceLogic, an IT operations management company, released the results of its FOSE 2009 Government IT Survey on Tuesday. It showed that those in the federal IT sector are predicting major changes resulting from White House directives and the overall economic climate.

The survey reported that 30% of respondents predicted stalled projects as a result of current challenges. Nine percent of respondents said they foresee major cuts to IT costs. Eight percent of respondents said they believe IT projects will be completely frozen. Sixteen percent of respondents said they did not believe their budgets would be impacted by a recession.

Budgetary concerns ranked top among challenges facing federal IT departments in 2009. Fifty-three percent of respondents cited it as one of their biggest challenges, while 41% of respondents cited IT security as one of the greatest hurdles they would have to overcome this year. Twenty-six percent ranked new technology and innovation among their chief concerns, while 25% cited IT modernization as one of their greatest challenges.

Sixteen percent of government IT workers said they expect this year's changes to be significant, but 12% of respondents said they don't anticipate any changes. Thirty percent of the IT professionals interviewed said they would have to wait and see.

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