InfoWorld: Top News  -
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div class="rxbodyfield"p class="ArticleBody" page="1"No company is immune from the economy's ebb
and flow. So it's no surprise that, in the face of a fearsome downturn, IT shops are scrambling to
figure out where they should cut./pp align="right"a
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width="336" height="280" border="0" alt="" align="right"//a/pp class="ArticleBody" page="1"The big
three analyst firms -- Forrester, Gartner, and IDC -- are busily slashing their IT spending
projections. Just last week IDC predicted that in the United States, IT spending will decline to
0.9 percent, down sharply from a pre-crisis forecast of 4.2 percent growth./pp class="ArticleBody"
page="1"b[ Just/b bhow severe is the impact of the economy on IT? Find out in "a
href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/10/27/44NF-tech-spending_1.html?source=fssr"
class="regularArticleU"Is tech in more trouble than we think?/a" ]/b/pp class="ArticleBody"
page="1"With numbers like those, IT might feel inclined to panic. But now is the time to stand
tough, advises Andrew Reichman, senior analyst at Forrester Research. "Companies should tighten
their belts, not take their pants off," he admonishes./pp class="ArticleBody" page="1"At brokerage
and investment banking firm Morgan Keegan, for example, CIO John Threadgill acknowledges that he
has to "come up with better reasons" for the technologies to which he allocates IT resources. But
after he eliminates or delays costs where feasible, Threadgill and his CIO colleagues must continue
investing in certain areas, no matter how crazily the economy bounces up or down. "We'll continue
to spend where we need to," says Threadgill./pp class="ArticleBody" page="1"So which technologies
get funded rain or shine? InfoWorld consulted a range analysts and CIOs to arrive at a consensus:
the five technologies IT shops must continue to invest in despite the recession. The common theme,
says IDC chief analyst and senior vice president Frank Gens, is that "any technologies that can
save companies money or reduce expenses will continue to thrive."/pp class="ArticleBody"
page="1"b1. Storage: Disks and management softwarebr/ /b"There are some things that just won't go
back in the bottle," says Mark Raskino, Gartner fellow and vice president of emerging trends and
technologies. "Storage is one of those."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="1"Data keeps piling up and
regulatory compliance mandates require that companies hold onto data longer than they've ever had
to. To that end, IDC continues to estimate that spending on disk storage will double every two
years, at least through 2012./pp class="ArticleBody" page="1"Another growth area will be "storage
management tools that help IT get better use out of the hardware they already have," says Steve
Minton, vice president of worldwide IT markets at IDC./pp class="ArticleBody" page="1"Forrester's
Reichman suggests that thin provisioning, data de-duplication, and storage virtualization will
prove worthy of investment. "Data de-duplication can improve performance, success rates, these
types of things ? while storage virtualization is a way to be more flexible and move data
nondisruptively."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="1"b[ Morgan/b bKeegan is one of the top 10 companies
in the 2008 InfoWorld 100 Awards. Check out "a
href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/11/17/47FE-infoworld-100-morgan-keegan_1.html?source=fssr"
class="regularArticleU"Morgan Keegan invests in resilience/a" for a complete case study. ]/b/pp
class="ArticleBody" page="1"Morgan Keegan's Threadgill agrees, saying that spending on storage and
security will be his top IT priorities for 2009. "Our biggest spend next year is going to be
storage. Data doubles yearly," he says. "With what's happening in the last 30 to 60 days, we also
might see new regulatory requirements and have to keep our data forever."/pp class="ArticleBody"
page="1"b2. Business intelligence: Niche analyticsbr/ /bAs data continues to accrue, the need to
glean insights from it grows, agree analysts from Forrester, Gartner, and IDC./pp
class="ArticleBody" page="1"CIOs will keep spending on general business intelligence, but more
resources will go toward very focused analytics, explains Andrew Bartels, principal analyst at
Forrester. The "analytics that help companies identify and retain their most-profitable customers
will be key," he says./pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"Gartner fellow and vice president Jackie Fenn
adds that companies always need behavior analytics. In the supply chain, for instance, analytics
that trigger alerts when suppliers are running into problems, such as delaying supply or payment,
can deliver real value to companies./pp class="ArticleBody" page="2""The broader range of data
sources will lead to greater need for analytics," Gartner's Fenn explains. "There are many
different masters, as companies tap analytics to cut costs, avoid errors, predict behavior of
customers before they lose them, grow market opportunities."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"Michael
Khan, CIO of international eye care service Specsavers, adds that he is continuing to invest in
technologies that improve customer insight and retention because "it's easier to keep those
customers now, even at a cost, than to try and win them back later."/pp class="ArticleBody"
page="2"b3. Virtualization: Optimizing resourcesbr/ /b Virtualization is the datacenter version of
getting the most out of what you already have. Up-front investment in virtualization tends to be
fairly low, but can deliver quick and substantial returns. "Virtualization will continue to be
popular because it allows companies to defer other costs -- in this case, that's mostly hardware,"
IDC's Gens says./pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"Specsavers began tapping virtualization before the
downturn. "Virtualization is a key tactic we've been doing for some time to minimize hardware
acquisition costs," Khan says, "and that will continue."?/pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"b[ For/b
bmore on the security risks of virtualization and how to address them, read "a
href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/03/13/11NF-virt-security_1.html?source=fssr"
class="regularArticleU"Virtualization's secret security threats/a." ]/b/pp class="ArticleBody"
page="2"Virtualization has advantages beyond hardware cost reduction. "Everybody's moving to
virtualization," Forrester's Reichman says. "You're likely to be more efficient with server and
storage resources in the long run, and if you have expertise, that return is likely to come fast. A
down economy might be the right time to throw down and do it, especially if you can time it with
hardware refreshes."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"Transplace, the $2.5 billion transportation
logistics provider, is reaping the benefits of moving to 90 percent virtualized infrastructure,
according to CTO Vince Biddlecombe. "Converting from a physical to a virtual infrastructure is
particularly beneficial during tough economic conditions," Biddlecombe says. "Virtualization has
allowed us to save on power and cooling costs as well as the amount of time our IT staff spends on
server admin. It provides us with more efficient use of capital as well as increased flexibility
during challenging times."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"But CIOs should also expect
virtualization to force security investments because, as Threadgill explains, "the virtual machine
environment has to be as secure as the physical environment."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"b4.
Security: Data and end pointsbr/ /bNo surprises here. IDC's Gens, in fact, says that security is
"always the No. 1 concern of IT. As you see more resources out there on the Internet, there's
concern that they're secure."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"Companies will have a particular focus
on securing network end points, devices, and those applications that serve them, according to IDC's
Minton. "Whether you're in a recession or not, no company wants to be on the front page of the Wall
Street Journal because their data was breached," he adds./pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"Threadgill
lists security as the second of Morgan Keegan's top two spending priorities, behind only storage.
And Specsavers' Khan adds that his budget will include security technologies, namely firewalls,
tools for securing end points, and data encryption for mobile devices and remote PCs. "There's no
reduction in security expenses," Khan says. "If anything we're increasing our security
spending."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="3"Gartner and Forrester agree that companies will continue
to ratchet up security. Raskino adds that layoffs and, in turn, new hires will be yet another
driver. "An economic downturn and recovery create massive churn," he says. "The processes and tools
for managing and disabling access are going to be critical."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="3"b5.
Cloud computing: Business solutionsbr/ /b Analysts from Forrester, Gartner, and IDC say that
certain pieces of cloud computing will continue to expand -- and perhaps even accelerate due to the
downturn./pp class="ArticleBody" page="3"IDC predicts that cloud computing will account for 9 or 10
percent of IT spending by 2012, up from the 4 percent allocated in 2008. "That's a conservative
forecast made before the Dow tanked," Gens adds. "So that's going to accelerate cloud offerings
from the big vendors."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="3"b[ Times/b bof turmoil are times of
opportunity. Check out "a
href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/10/01/40NF-cloud-adoption_1.html?source=fssr"
class="regularArticleU"Will the downturn accelerate cloud computing?/a" ]/b/pp class="ArticleBody"
page="3"Gens sees many companies moving to the cloud for the applications and services most often
sought by business types, who are actually circumventing the IT department to get what they need.
These include such business solutions as sales-force automation, productivity, and marketing
campaign software. "The more pure IT stuff -- infrastructure, infrastructure software, application
development -- those are tech buyers, so there are fewer potential customers," Gens says./pp
class="ArticleBody" page="3"Tech buyers are taking a hard look at such cloud services as Amazon's
EC2, which allows businesses to scale capacity dynamically by uploading virtual machines to
Amazon's servers. But other less glitzy areas are getting traction, too. Cloud-based data backup
and file storage services are "a really good idea that can be much more cost-effective" than going
it the old-fashioned, in-house way, Forrester's Reichman says./pp class="ArticleBody"
page="3"Gartner's Raskino adds to the list of cloud resources CIOs will find valuable during a
recession such services as e-mail, storage, and lightweight productivity apps. "This is a good time
to have a cost-centric argument, so IT might even take a risk to get a payoff with cloud
technologies, if they're mature enough," he says./pp class="ArticleBody" page="3"bLooking toward
recoverybr/ /b Over the next four years, IDC expects that the tech industry will lose more than
$300 billion in revenue due to the spending slowdown. The good news: IT spending will make a full
recovery and enjoy growth rates nearing 6 percent by 2012, according to IDC./pp class="ArticleBody"
page="3"Whether such projections hold or not, Forrester's Reichman argues that IT shops must trim
their sails and stay the course. "You cannot stop growing," Reichman explains. "Most companies are
already fire-fighting, but you've got keep the lights on, keep things going forward, because the
datacenter is always in a recession anyway. So keep moving."/pp class="ArticleBody"
page="3"Specsavers' Khan advises IT shops to weigh their options carefully, because investments
made during a recession often have lasting impact. "In these economic scenarios," Khan says,
"you've got to make a judgment on which technologies will bring you advantage when things turn
around and get better."/p/divbr style=clear: both;/ a
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