The management and storage of data has risen to number three in a list of Technology Priorities for CIOs in Australia/New Zealand in 2010, being edged out for the top spot by Virtualisation and Networking respectively according to an annual Gartner survey.

But more than half of the ANZ CIOs will have to deal with the issue without an increase in IT spend, as 57% of those surveyed reported their budgets would stay flat in 2010.

CIOs in Australia and New Zealand are turning to new strategies and starting to look at new ‘lighter weight’ technologies in order to deliver results for their organisation, according to the Gartner Executive Programs (EXP) 2010 CIO Agenda survey.

Gartner EXP’s latest annual survey of 1586 CIOs worldwide, including 67 from Australia and New Zealand, was conducted in December 2009 and represents CIO budget plans reported at that time.

The survey found that CIOs around the world all agreed that their main business priorities in 2010 were to improve business processes and cut enterprise costs.

Linda Price, group vice president, Asia Pacific for Gartner Executive Programs, said “2009 was an extremely challenging year for local CIOs in the corporate and public sectors as they faced organizational change and increased demand for services with reduced resources,” said Price.

“This is set to change in 2010, as the economy transitions from recession to recovery and enterprises transition their strategies from cost-cutting to productivity.”

Price said that while global CIOs are transitioning from “heavy” owner-operated solutions to “lighter-weight” services, ANZ CIOs are showing interest in the technology but few are using it.

“Another area of divergence from the global trend is the ranking of web 2.0 in the list of technology priorities. Although many are interested and most understand its inevitable ubiquity, most CIOs in this region are still grappling with the use of web 2.0 technologies in the business environment and what policies should govern its application.”

“CIOs see 2010 as an opportunity to reposition themselves and accelerate IT’s transition from a support function to strategic contributor focused on innovation and competitive advantage. They have aspired to this shift for years, but economic, strategic and technological changes have only recently made it feasible.”

The Gartner survey did not drill down into whether data management priorities related to unstructured or structured data, although two of the Australia/New Zealand CIOs indicated Content Management was a priority for them.