Links List 1.16.09

January 16th, 2009 by Julia Lim

President Obama’s much-anticipated economic stimulus package is expected to generate more than $350 billion in new contracting opportunities.  According to Input, a government IT market research company here in Reston, some initiatives likely to receive the funding are green technologies projects, electronic health care records and school modernization. As the world’s largest technology buyer and with technology mandates sure to come, we may finally see green technology adoption at a rate that justifies the hype.

What a difference 7 years makes. Denise Dubie of NetworkWorld takes an optimistic view of the challenges IT faces and will overcome in the year to come. During the industry collapse of 2001, IT was more of an expensive line item – to be cut as necessary by the CEO. Today, IT pretty much across the board is more strategic and at the core of business delivery and value; IT may be in line for restructuring but it’s certainly not on the chopping block.

ChannelInsider polled solutions providers to come up with their take on which vendors they thought would go out of business or be acquired in 2009. While the title of the piece, “Tech Vendors That May Not Survive 2009” is slightly misleading since the consensus is that pretty much all of the companies will survive and even thrive, it’s still an interesting look at where they think these companies are headed.

Tom Kaneshige at InfoWorld writes about IT doing less with less. A Gartner survey found that in 2008, CIOs spread resources to deliver something to everyone, but the general shift now is toward concentrating on fewer projects that deliver results quickly, cut costs and basically getting their IT houses in order. We saw an early marker of this in the survey we ran at Interop NY. Attendees told us they were actually tackling the practical projects that should and could get done. Not a bad thing to focus on showing results quickly these days…

The news out of CES (Consumer Electronics Show) seems more subdued than in years past. The economy and the depressing layoff/unemployment news seem to be sucking some of the joy out of this exuberant and often over-the-top show. Instead of touting the new whiz-bang feature-laden gadget, some companies are focusing more on value proposition and getting the most bang for buyers’ bucks. Certainly, corporate travel is down and despite a press release titled, “2009 International CES electrifies and elicits optimism for global economy”, attendance at the show was also down by over 20%. But my favorite marker so far must be this tidbit on how taxi drivers and the local Vegas strip clubs are doing. If this writer’s unscientific survey can be believed, CES was hit hard by the economic downturn.

And on a happy note, just in time for the weekend – like many others yesterday, we were riveted by the real-life drama of the US Airways flight that landed in the Hudson River yesterday. I must admit more than 7 years later, I still have a tender spot, perhaps never to be fully healed, when I hear about disasters and emergencies in NYC. The great news: everyone was saved, flight attendants proved their safety expert chops, pilot Sully is a hero, and NYC – from the passengers on the plane to the people on the water ferry and everyone else who helped – showed again the best that people can be to one another.

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