(Nathan Eddy, eWeek) A new survey of more than 1,200 cost-conscious businesses shows a growing confidence among IT departments to expand budgets and embrace technologies like cloud computing and virtualization.

A report from IT management specialist Spiceworks found small to medium-size business IT professionals expect this year to be better than last, with business IT budgets up in 2010 as the economy seems to be stabilizing. However, the last six months of 2009 proved to be much harder on midmarket IT departments than IT professionals had anticipated, causing businesses to react quickly and curb IT spending.

The average IT budget climbed 9% in 2010 to $117,200, the report found, with 43% of SMBs reporting budget increases. 67% of SMBs said they plan to keep their IT staff the same for the first half of the year, while 20% said they plan to add new full-time staff.

IT budget trends for 2010 indicated that the midmarket IT budget freeze is beginning to thaw. 43% of their IT departments reported a budget increase this year, while SMB IT professionals reported a cut to their IT budget declined 24% from the last survey (31% to 24%). For 2010, the annual IT budget increased 9%, versus a 1% decrease in 2009.