What percent of your IT budget do you spend on "keeping the lights on"? If you're anything like a typical company that I work with, the answer is more than half. That doesn't leave much money for spending on new initiatives and projects — in fact, in 2010, the average IT organization spent less than 25% of their IT operating and capital budget in these categories. Most companies that I speak with tell me they wish it was more, but they get constantly caught up in the day-to-day "firefighting" which leaves little time and budget to spend on new innovations, more proactive measures, and new initiatives. And the treadmill just keeps getting faster and faster as more projects are piled on with little or no additional budget to help implement them.