Earlier this week I was visiting some of our clients in Canada. Each of the clients had a story to tell about how they were stretching their IT budgets and finding new ways to redeploy or use their older equipment. Rather than buying new, they have recognized that their older equipment is still High Availability although it has been superseded by the manufacturer. We have entered an era of austerity and the virtues of conservation of capital will become evident to the CFO’s of many organizations over the next few years.
We are talking to customers who are redeploying older equipment in the USA and throughout the world as customers try to rationalize the features and values they are receiving from their software and hardware vendors. It makes sense to maintain equipment and stretch out the service duty cycle the same way many people are keeping their cars longer than they used to.
In my opinion, it is the uncertainty of the future of business taxes and regulations which are causing a wave of cautious conservatism in IT budgets. Uncertainty has costs which are hard to quantify, but when reviewed make sense.
I am optimistic about 2010, because our customers recognize that we can help them thrive in the era of austerity.
