Survey Finds CIOs Opening Their Wallets

CIOs are freeing up a larger portion of their IT budgets to shore up security gaps and modernize security software and networking gear, according to the company’s fourth annual Piper Jaffray CIO Survey, which reached 112 CIOs. The survey, which was released this week, projects 2015 to be another boom year for information security vendors. The high profile data breaches in 2014 have caused corporate boards to be more proactive about security, said Andrew Nowinski, a vice president and senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray. The angst over security grew significantly in corporate boardrooms following the departure of two senior executives at Target Corp. over its breach, including its CEO, a 35-year veteran of the company and its CIO who oversaw IT operations in the U.S. and India. The CIOs in the Piper Jaffray survey indicated that product price, ease of use and support matter most to their investment decisions. IT Best of Breed pulled together the top five spending priorities cited by the CIOs.