IDC: Economy to Hit IT Spending Hard
So now we're getting some predictions about how the topsy-turvy stock market and sliding economy might start affecting IT operations. Market analysis firm IDC is
predicting that U.S. IT spending, expected to grow at 4.2 percent next year, will instead decline 0.9 percent, marking a 5 percent drop.
Actually, that's not as bad as I expected it to be. Warnings about recessions -- and even worse -- are starting to appear in the press, and some analysts believe IT will be hit especially hard.
The question is how that will affect virtualization vendors. Virtualization is usually seen as a money-saving, rather than money-burning, activity. It is true, however, that initially, virtualization can be expensive, as hardware refreshes are quite often necessary. It will take some work to convince the C-level exec who controls your purse strings that upgrading to quad-core, 64GB RAM servers will actually save money. On the other hand, it could be like those IBM commercials (which I love) where the woman explains to her grumpy boss about the energy savings, and the world turns colorful and puts a smile on his face while he happily signs the P.O.
So how about it, IT pros? What does your '09 budget look like? Is the contracting economy going to affect virtualization projects, or will the ultimate cost savings keep thos projects on the front burner? Tell me.
Posted by Keith Ward on 11/12/2008 at 12:48 PM