Tech budgets rise modestly

According to Gartner, companies will increase their IT spending by 4.5 percent this year compared to 2011. The numbers have been modestly revised downward from an early projection of 5 percent.

The focus will remain on key applications, which include a variety of data management tools. Gartner stated that companies will try to move spending out of capital expenditures, but continue with their core processes.

"Spending in 2012 is anticipated to focus on industry-specific applications, upgrades to established, mission-critical software, integrating and securing established systems and infrastructure and Software-as-a-Service deployments representing extensions to, or replacement of, existing applications and new solutions," said Gartner's Tom Eid.

Big data analytics could remain a priority for companies, as it fits in with many of the applications chosen as critical by Gartner. The cloud, tipped to stay hot, has become a popular repository for big data. The business intelligence sector, where analytics resides, is set to draw $13 billion in revenue.

Even in tight times, big data analytics could be popular due to its ability to drive return on investment. A recent Wakefield Research study concerning big data use found 73 percent of data-using companies have derived revenue increases from information, and 84 percent believe big data can improve decision-making.