After more than a year of declines, direct market reseller CDW's bimonthly survey of IT leaders is now showing signs that the worst of the recession may be over.

The most recent CDW IT Monitor survey shows that an increasing number of IT decision makers from small and midsize businesses—29 percent—anticipate making investments in IT over the next six months. That's an increase of 7 percentage points from the previous survey in February.

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Also, 18 percent of midsize business IT decision makers said they anticipate hiring in the next six months, an increase of 6 percentage points since February.

But in spite of these positive movements, overall confidence among IT decision makers remains relatively low, according to CDW. However, for the first time in six months the confidence rating remained flat with the previous survey, indicating that eroding confidence may have stabilized.

"The challenging economic times everyone has experienced are by no means over," says Mark Gambill, vice president of CDW, in a statement. "But for the first time in more than a year, we are seeing green shoots that indicate returning confidence in the IT industry. The fact that an increasing number of IT decision makers are anticipating any amount of future growth at this time is reason to believe the first signs of spring may have arrived in what has been a gloomy economic climate."

The CDW IT Monitor is based on an online survey of at least 1,000 IT decision makers from businesses of all sizes and all sectors of government.