- Survey of IT executives shows that these professionals perceive a talent shortage as a significantly more prominent barrier in putting emerging technologies into place
- 64 percent name a lack of talent as an issue, compared to just 4 percent in 2020
- Businesses are nevertheless looking to increase investments in emerging technologies and put them into place more quickly
Summary by Dirk Langeveld
A talent shortage has become a significantly more prominent barrier to putting emerging technologies into place over the course of just this past year, according to a survey from the research and advisory firm Gartner Inc.
Sixty-four percent of information technology executives in the poll identified a lack of talent as the most pressing barrier to emerging technologies, up from just 4 percent in 2020. The issue was also cited much more often than other barriers, with just 27 percent citing the cost of implementation and 7 percent naming security risks.
Talent shortages were named as the key barrier in all six IT areas outlined in the survey: computer infrastructure and platform services, network, security, digital workplace, IT automation, and storage and database. It was most pronounced in IT automation, where executives estimated it is affecting 75 percent of technologies, and in digital workplace technologies (41 percent).
- Despite these concerns, 58 percent said they are looking to increase or plan to increase their investments in emerging technologies in 2021; this is up from 29 percent in 2020
- Business leaders were also looking to deploy technologies more rapidly, typically within six to 18 months
- 82 percent of IT executives agreed that enterprise leaders outside of the IT field are influencing decisions on the adoption of emerging technologies
- Respondents identified resilience and critical IT infrastructure as top priorities among IT leaders, resulting in a prioritization of cloud deployments and security technology investments
