George Colony of Forrester has posted a great analysis of why this recession will be different for tech than the last one 2001-03. This is important to remember as the wave of layoffs continues.
To dramatically simplify his argument the reasons are:
- After 2000 there was fat everywhere in tech – but enterprises have become much more disciplined since then
- Tech has become much more pervasive and central to strategy, making it more difficult to cut – particularly as customers now also live on tech
- There are now burning tech issues that need addressing (virtualisation, social computing, mobile, green IT and SOA) – this wasn’t the case last time round
The full post is well worth a read, but the message is clear, we can expect tough times but predictions of armagedon should be treated with care.
Note that this is about tech rather than media.
