IT has not become recession-proof, to be sure.
But thanks to lessons of the last downturn, a survey finds that tech departments are prepared to handle whatever economic challenges the next year may bring.
"The major shift for IT during the past few years has been a much sharper focus on cost containment and ROI, not to mention significantly leaner staffs. Thanks to IT practices such as SaaS (software as a service), outsourcing, and virtualization, the cost of obtaining essential IT services is much lower than in years past," Dan Tynan writes in The state of IT: Primed for uncertainty.
Most important, Tynan continues, technology is now viewed as a key strategic component of business success such that, "enterprises that slash their tech budgets could end up cutting their own throats."