At Nortel Networks Corp., a Toronto based communications equipment provider, the IT department is working through a steady increase in globalization, particularly in Asia. So says Mary Clement, the VP responsible for the company's Office of the CIO function. Nortel operates from 220 locations in some 55 countries. "We experience globalization not only as an expansion into new countries, but also as a growing mobile workforce that needs to work any time from anywhere," Clement says.

Globalization is boosting IT spending, the survey finds. Fully half the respondents say their organizations will spend more this year on information security than they did last year due to globalization. Similarly, more than 40 percent expect they'll spend more this year on IT infrastructure technology. Other areas of IT that will see spending increases during 2008 include network infrastructure, compliance, 24x7 operational capabilities, collaboration tools, IT end points, outsourcing, and risk management, the survey finds.

Nortel, for example, has increased its IT spending to both support business growth in low-cost countries and equip its mobile workforce with portable devices and applications. The company also is focusing on securing information to comply with government export controls and local privacy laws, Clement explains. "In these areas we're spending more time, more planning and more tracking, and we're dedicating more infrastructure," she says.

Increased spending on IT security as a result of globalization is the order of the day at NightHawk Radiology Services. The Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, company provides around-the-clock radiology services from facilities in Australia, Switzerland and the U.S. to physicians located anywhere around the world. One big reason why NightHawk has increased its data-security spending is that the U.S. government has instituted new requirements which limit access to patient healthcare information based on citizenship and location, explains CIO Michael Karaman. "This led us to implement a number of security provisions that support these requirements and also provide sufficiently granular access controls," he adds.

Some factors of globalization are causing CIOs to boost IT spending even during these slow economic times. About one-third of respondents who say they're spending more attribute it to increased financial pressures resulting from globalization. Other major factors for increased spending include adapting to new, cross-cultural business processes; the need to maintain transborder governance and security; outsourcing; localization; and disaggregation of the supply chain, according to the survey.