Looking at the year ahead, what are the top tech aspirations and concerns among the IT decision-makers who comprise Petri.com’s readers?
In a recent survey, senior IT buyers made it loud and clear that their biggest professional goals for 2020 are also the source of their biggest worries — and marketers would do well to find ways to support their journeys.
Consider the top items on IT pros’ lists: security and cloud computing.
Security. When Petri pros were asked about their main areas of focus this year, security came out on top. Protection of individually identifiable information has become ever more demanding, as greater volumes of data than ever before are exchanged among increasingly complex systems regulated by new laws to govern the way organizations handle PII.
Not surprisingly, then, security also topped the list of concerns among Petri readers; all that complexity translates into a growing threat landscape with new vulnerabilities to exploit.
More specifically, Petri readers listed these top concerns:
- Ransomware
- Password insecurity
- Recovery from new attacks
- Data Breach
- Cybersecurity
Cloud computing. Migration of services to the cloud kicked up another set of priorities and concerns for IT buyers.
A majority of respondents said cloud computing is key to their 2020 plans. They plan to migrate systems to the cloud — and establish business plans and best practices to make sure cloud technology supports
Respondents were especially interested in extending their knowledge about the cloud: deriving more value from cloud solutions like Office 365, OneDrive and SharePoint as well as learning more about cloud platforms. In addition, they hope to learn more about how to derive best value from their cloud computing.
Among Petri readers’ top concerns:
- Growing list of SaaS-only solutions is forcing cloud adoption
- Difficulty keeping up with new cloud innovations
- Evolution of cloud migrations make it hard to
- Pressure to tailor cloud infrastructure to their needs
These priorities and pressures are also reflected in additional issues that are top of mind among IT buyers in 2020: end-user education, IT training for new technologies, and executive buy-in to fund new technologies and processes.
So what’s a tech marketer to do? In 2020, the chances are very, very high that your products and services include features and functionality that involve IT buyers’ must-learn topics of security and the cloud.
Lean into those conversations when the opportunity presents, and be ready to address the practical implications of both. The more you can do to equip your buyers with tools they need to sell needed solutions and best practices to business leaders, the likelier you are to prove yourself an indispensable ally on the outside.
