8. Wireless LANs

Thirty-two percent of CIOs surveyed said they plan to increase their investment in wireless local area networks this year, making WLANs the eighth most popular technology investment in 2017.

The increasing number of mobile devices in large organizations, for which WLAN is the primary network connectivity solution, is likely fueling the spending ramp up, Piper Jaffray said.

Even though the number of wireless-enabled devices in the workplace has increased, according to the report, roughly 21 percent of CIOs said their organizations have yet to implement enterprise-grade wireless systems. That could signal channel opportunities for more WLAN deployments in 2017.