CIOs are focusing their plans on more flexible architectures and more efficient data centers.

McKinsey's October 2006 survey of senior IT executives shows a growing interest in service-oriented architectures and lean data center operations.

Service-oriented architectures, which improve communication and integration between IT systems regardless of their underlying technologies, are a response to the widespread adoption of global Web services standards.

IT departments usually try a technology internally for several years before implementing it in systems that communicate with other organizations. But nearly half of all survey respondents are eager to try service-oriented architectures in outward-facing systems.

Another trend is the application of lean principles, pioneered in manufacturing environments, to large data centers in order to improve productivity.