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InformationWeek is conducting its annual survey on IT spending priorities. The results will appear in an upcoming issue of InformationWeek as well as in an in-depth report. This survey will take about 10 minutes to complete. Upon completion, you will be eligible to enter a drawing to receive one Apple 32GB iPad mini valued at $429 from UBM Tech. This survey sweepstakes is not sponsored, endorsed or administered by Apple. Your responses will remain confidential and will only be reported in aggregate.

Mobile-enabled sales and service tools are improving workforce metrics across industries. Here are seven case studies to show how mobility can transform financial services firms in retail and business banking, capital markets, insurance and wealth management.

The market for IT talent in the sector is strengthening and shifting in focus, with data analysis skills in high demand. However, total compensation for IT staff and managers has been relatively flat.

Salaries are rising slightly, with median compensation for IT staff at $90,000 and for managers at $120,000. Here are 11 key insights that IT pros should take from the findings from our 14,000 survey respondents.

Salaries are basically flat for managers and staff in network and data center positions, according to InformationWeek's 2013 U.S. IT Salary Survey. Base salaries rose by a median of less than 2% for staff and management vs. 2012. In other words, the weak economic recovery is reflected in paychecks for IT pros.

Salaries are up slightly -- 1.6% for staff and 2.4% for managers -- while job security appears strong and satisfaction levels are high, with 66% of staff and 73% of managers saying they’re satisfied or very satisfied with their jobs.

Salaries for IT pros in higher education have been stuck in neutral for some time, rising just 1.4% for managers and remaining flat for staff this year. But workers get satisfaction from job perks such as flexibility and time off.

We outline six questions you must ask when deciding whether to move your telephony system to a hosted VoIP provider, including questions about reliability, branch survivability, E911 capability and whether you're looking for additional collaboration services. We also outline how to price a hosted VoIP option.

Eventually, the vast majority of Web applications will run on a platform-as-a-service, or PaaS, vendor's infrastructure. The shift will be gradual -- significantly slower than the move to infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) providers like Amazon Web Services -- for several reasons.

The cloud promises -- and often delivers -- tremendous cost savings and agility for enterprises. However, whether a company is leveraging the public cloud, a private cloud or some combination thereof, the security equation changes significantly when the cloud is a factor. In this Dark Reading report, we examine the security implications of cloud computing and offer advice for plugging any holes in the model.

In the increasingly complex world of information security, it's important for security professionals to be able to understand not only how their organization's systems and data may be compromised but why. In this Dark Reading report we examine why certain vulnerabilities are exploited, by whom and with what. We also provide recommendations for getting out in front of hackers by using some of the same tools and strategies they do.

Assessing and reporting risk is a challenge in any case, but especially in today's constantly changing IT and business environments. Organizations that want to approach risk in a systematic way face significant obstacles, but it is possible to adopt a structured risk management strategy while keeping data current. In this Dark Reading report, we recommend strategies and tools for harnessing data in a way that's relevant and meaningful, and can be effectively reported to all stakeholders.

IBM has long touted big iron as the platform of choice for massive transactions, batch processing and critical financial services, and with good reason. But can the mainframe hold its ground in the face of cloud, distributed computing and relentless budget pressure? Yes, if IT can leverage killer apps and hold the line on costs.

It's a mobile world, and Wi-Fi is displacing wired Ethernet: 89% use 802.11 as a client network access method, up from 76% in 2010. Still, IT must meet high expectations for network speed, security and reliability. Perhaps that's why a surprising 45% have plans to deploy 802.11ac gear in production.

Knotted and complex database access permissions are among the biggest threats to enterprise data security. In this Dark Reading report, we examine the problems associated with granting permissions to sensitive data, and recommend solutions that will help organizations thoughtfully and effectively grant privilege when and where it is needed -- and only when and where it is needed.

Major database breaches and easy-to-crack selections underscore the vulnerability of our most common authentication mechanism. So what's the alternative for protecting our online lives? To find out, we polled a range of security experts.

Assessing an organization's security risk is an important element of an effective enterprise security strategy. It's also a key way to justify future security spending to upper management. In this Dark Reading report, we recommend how to conduct an IT security risk assessment -- and how to translate the results into terms that make sense in dollars.

IT has good reason to demand standardization in SaaS, IaaS and PaaS offerings. But what’s interesting is that vendors themselves are just as interested and, in many cases, are driving standards efforts. In a market this fast-moving, the old top-down model is being turned on its head.

Devices running Apple's latest mobile operating system -- including the iPhone 5 -- are all over your network. Learn how to keep your users safe and productive, and find out about the six features in iOS 6 IT pros will love or hate.

They are out to get you, make no mistake. But there are things you can do to make sure that your organization is unappealing to a cybercriminal bent on finding easy pickings. The key is to understand what cybercriminals are looking for and how they go about the business of infiltrating vulnerable systems and networks.

When it comes to protecting PCs and laptops, IT puts too much emphasis on malware detection. You'll get better results by focusing on performance, management and -- most importantly -- how users and the security software interact. This report tells you how to evaluate endpoint security software based on what really matters.

Exclusive research of 230 IT pros and 68 carriers providing 4G services shows that while customers are pleased with service now, the future looks far less certain.

A managed security service provider should lift at least some cost and resource burden from the IT department's shoulders. But what if it doesn't? What if you aren't any more secure after entering into a contract with an MSSP? And how do you even know if it's doing everything it promised? There is an art to managing the MSSP relationship after the initial deal is done. In this report, Dark Reading provides recommendations for testing the mettle of MSSPs and for dealing with providers if their performance isn't up to snuff.

In this follow-up report to 'Understanding Software-Defined Networks,' we examine IT deployment plans and explore the technology ecosystem around SDN. This report drills into the current and planned efforts of the Open Networking Foundation, which is driving standardization of the OpenFlow protocol, and provides details on SDN strategies from 17 vendors.