Pick any analyst you like (Gartner, ESG, IDC, Taneja), and they all agree, IT spending is going to increase in 2010. Gartner predicts that IT spending will increase 4% to 9% this year, which is a reversal of the decline in 2009, also 4% to 9%*. So, now that we’re half way through the year, is 2010 an indication of better times ahead for IT? I think Steve Duplessie from ESG said it best: “In 2009, IT stopped spending money. In 2010, they will spend more to save money,” and it would appear that many industry and financial analysts agree with him. I also think it has to do with the most important part of the capitalist system: competition. Businesses can never really stand still; they might take steps back to reassess where they are investing, but they never remain stagnant for long, because their competitors won’t either.
To the point of competition, we know that companies that leverage the right IT technologies gain competitive advantage in their markets, supply chains and operating expenses. If we look at 2010, we see a major IT refresh based on three core infrastructure transitions, next-generation servers based on Intel’s new 5600 and 7500 CPUs, VMware 4.0 and 10Gb Ethernet (10GbE) network convergence. The combination of these technologies will enable businesses and IT to provide more compute power, in smaller data center footprints, with less operating expense. This is the key business triumvirate: more business, fewer resources and lower costs.
This is not to say that 2010 has been and will continue to be an easy year for IT–far from it–but, it will be a pivotal year of strategic IT investments to remain and gain competitive advantage. Emulex is not just talking about it; we are doing the same thing in our data center and with our engineering teams. We are placing strategic bets in 2010 that will drive our competitive edge for years to come. This is a pivotal year for 10GbE network convergence and 8Gb Fibre Channel, and Emulex is ready to compete and win in 2010.
*Gartner Worldwide End-User Spending on IT by Technology Segment and Region, December, 2009
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