I caught an interesting piece at eWeek on server spend and what enterprises are doing, and not doing, when it comes to doling out IT dollars on infrastructure.

And the research poses yet another reason why IT organizations should be getting up to speed on IBM’s zEnterprise offering, especially those who might be running Oracle on an non-IBM system.

A study by TheInfoPro reports tech staffs are looking to cut expenses, save on server costs and find the resources to advance the use of virtualization technology.

TheInfoPro's survey, which polled 252 decision makers at Fortune 1000 firms, reports 39% will spend less on servers this year than last and 25% will spend more. More than half, 55% said they’re leaning on virtualization capabilities to slice the number of servers currently in use. That will save big money on support and management costs obviously.

The report states that 21% of Oracle-Sun users plan to switch out Sun hardware and 26% are considering such a move.

And, on the server software side, spending is up in all areas, with IBM doing “particularly well,” according to TheInfoPro.

No surprise on the latter note, given that IBM-Oracle is a proven hardware/software combination, and advanced offerings like the zEnterprise is exactly what enterprises seeking good return on investment, faster and more reliable performance, and cost efficiency, need for today’s database environment.