Talk about a good news-bad news proposition: corporations are planning to spend money on oft-postponed network projects this year but they'll only spend a little more than they did last year.

A recent study by Forrester Research reports overall IT spending will increase by about 2%, with one-third of the 877 surveyed companies planning to spend more in 2003 than 2002. The firm found that while infrastructure purchases took precedence in 2002, disaster recovery and business intelligence software applications will top the majority of companies' shopping lists this year.

"IT execs are finding that they can only defer upgrades for so long. Many upgrades for 2001 were deferred into 2002 and then from 2002 to 2003. The issue has caught up with many IT organizations," says Tom Pohlmann, senior analyst with Forrester.

Users seem to agree with the findings.

"Regardless of the economy, businesses will eventually have to move forward with IT projects because it's going to reach the point where they won't have a choice anymore," says Basil Blume, CTO at Centennial Bank of the West in Fort Collins, Colo.