The changes companies made to their IT departments during the recession, which could include moving their services to a managed WAN to reduce staffing costs, are likely to remain in place throughout the recovery.
A report published by Gartner has predicted that IT head counts are unlikely to return to pre-recession levels, with rises in the last 12 months a short-term boost caused by an increase in contractor positions.
Lily Mok, vice president at the analyst, claimed that many firms are having difficulties finding candidates for the jobs they do have available, which could lead organizations to seek alternative methods such as moving to a managed WAN which would allow them to avoid the cost.
She concluded: "While we expect hiring activities to slowly pick up over the next 12 to 18 months as market conditions improve, we think it is unlikely that many IT organizations will return to their pre-recession staffing levels."
Recent research by CommVault found that a growing number of companies are deploying virtualization in order to cut their IT budgets.