September 08, 2008, 10:20 AM — There's no shortage of scary economic headlines these days, and anybody trying to make a dollar is right to be wary of what is to come. But the IT business isn't as hard-hit as was once expected.
Gartner had earlier predicted a downturn in hardware sales, but last week backpedalled a bit during its Hardware Insight conference. That's not to say that everything's going to be full-steam ahead, though, we should expect some major changes in how fast the industry grows, and in how it operates. Gartner still predicts a slowdown in sales for the second half of the year, although that slowdown won't be a major bust. But to keep from making a small problem large, manufacturers and resellers will have to re-visit how they do things. Cloud computing for example, will be a "disruptive force," and there will be a lot more consolidation going on.
