A recent survey by SolarWinds, a provider of IT management software, indicates that IT departments plan to invest in key areas of business in order to play a more competitive role.

SolarWinds conducted the survey in December 2011 and received responses from nearly 65 IT professionals. As part of the survey, SolarWinds asked each IT professional a series of questions related to their plans regarding cloud and virtualization.

Survey findings include:

* Nearly 65 percent of respondents plan to invest in competitive analysis vs. external services.

* More than 60 percent plan to invest in marketing IT services back to the business.

* Nearly 60 percent plan to invest in product management for those IT services.

“IT’s role of creating and maintaining infrastructure is transforming to act as more of an intermediary or broker in addition to those traditional roles,” said Jonathan Reeve, SolarWinds’ Sr. Director of Product Management. “IT professionals will need to demonstrate their expertise by identifying and implementing the most appropriate virtualization and cloud tools that fit their company's needs. Investing in areas such as competitive analysis, marketing and product management will help them on their way to becoming successful business leaders.”

“IT departments looking to stay competitive should ask themselves what direction their company is heading, identify the goals and determine IT's strategic role,” continued Reeve. “The good news is that IT departments already have the upper-hand in understanding the unique requirements of the businesses they support.”