The budgeting process is of critical importance to IT and business professionals in our subscriber base; it is perhaps even more important nowadays as we begin to see a recovery in IT spending and, increasingly, a shifting of priorities away from a narrow focus on cost cutting and efficiency. It is within this context that we at <em>Cutter Benchmark Review</em> decided to take stock of current budget trends and priorities. We wanted to do so at a time of year when we could get good data (i.e., your organization has begun to think about its next budget and the priorities it wants to pursue), provide useful results (i.e., this issue comes out before you have closed your cycle), and offer practical guidance.