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Technology Buying Slump

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the except-in-india dept.

mgcsinc writes "According to this Yahoo article from Reuters, IT buyers are continuing a trend of cutting costs, favoring utility over cutting-edge effect. Market researchers are estimating continuing doldrums in the industry and enterprise businesses see more 'bang for the buck' from making improvements in software as opposed to investing in new infrastructure. This is not necessarily awful, however, for those who hope businesses will start looking toward open source options as the cost effective alternatives..."

7 of 398 comments (clear)

  1. The right tools by BWJones · · Score: 5, Interesting

    IT buyers are continuing a trend of cutting costs, favoring utility over cutting-edge effect.

    This is the reason we are investing in OS X. In general to be productive, you use the tools that best help you to accomplish the job at hand. Yes, Linux and other open source solutions are often a part of this, but when one desktop system can replace several others including Wintel and traditional UNIX workstations such as SGI and Sun, all while running the same *NIX apps as before right along with productivity applications such as Photoshop and Office, it saves money and increases productivity, making it an easy decision.

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    1. Re:The right tools by krray · · Score: 5, Interesting

      This is exactly why we are doing the same. I did have to replace one IBM Thinkpad (Win2K) that was stolen recently. Putting 512M memory in it and a CD-RW drive along with a hard drive upgrade easily put it in the $2,300 - $2,500 range which was exactly what I paid a couple of years ago for the original.

      I now have about a 50/50 mix of OS X Powerbooks (about $2,600 in cost) and some Thinkpads, Dell's, and a few other personally purchased, but company supported laptops (TP's were what we supplied). I always seem to hear from the Windows users all the time with misc problems which usually resolve back to the OS screwing up somewhere again. The Mac users literally never call.

      I personally rolled Mac's out first to field guys who never really touched a computer before (no bias to fight). At the same time it was replacing home systems for the top management.

      Wait six months and watch the trickle down happen. The CEO, President, VP of Operations, etc -- all had no issue when as systems were depreciated (ANOTHER concept Microsoft seems to not understand :) they are being replaced with Mac's where it makes sense.

      Unfortunately I haven't come across the Linux or OS X based CAD application that can be seriously considered against AutoCAD. Ironically it's the engineering department that is drooling the most over the new G5's -- and as it stands right now will be the last to see them.

      Personally I go home to Linux in the basement (and BSD and Netware for testing work configs :) with the Mac used as my main desktop/GUI system. Heck, 99% of my Linux/BSD based work can easily be done through the terminal and most of the applications can be compiled/tested directly on OS X as needed.

      As soon as the economy allows and/or a server truly dies (3 years left to depreciate :) the next incoming server WILL be a X-Serve as it stands now. Currently I've never allowed/wanted/needed a Windows server with the core network being run on Netware with Linux and BSD being used more heavily recently. I never understood companies that got Windows servers when their Netware was running just fine. Personally I had one Netware 3.12 server that finally died last year sometime after running for over a DECADE non-stop 24/7 with really no issues other than dust.

      The only case where I can see using Windows and be more productive than on any other system is with CAD as mentioned. Otherwise it's OS.X hands down for now. I know the only why I'll pry the lowly G4 450Mhz Cube from my brothers hands will be with a G5. I personally started on that Cube and was my first Mac purchase to go after OS.X in the BETA time. Before that (OS 9 and prior) I had absolutely no interest in the Mac.

      I was running Linux at home. :)

  2. Optimisitic? by calebb · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "We have a common strategy. It's common, bulletproof infrastructure with standardized PCs, standardized networks and (security), standardized servers,"

    Isn't that what all IT coordinators desire? I think that this is another way of saying they are looking for a longer useful service life on computer systems (due to the slower economy & lack of necessity); Technology (processor, motherboard IO chipsets, storage, etc) is still changing just as quickly as it was in the 90's when we saw the change from MFM -> IDE -> EIDE drives, 8 bit -> 16 bit -> 32 bit buses, 12MHz ram -> 266MHz ram, etc ...
    however... I believe that if you take a last-generation system - a P4-1.5GHz for example - It is powerful enough to have a much longer useful service life than a 386sx-16MHz did back in the early 90's;
    i.e., in 2003, $50,000 will purchase many more last-generation PC's than it did in 1992 & they will remain useful equipment for a longer period of time due to the current level of technology.

    Then again, I could be living in a dreamworld & P4's could be obsolete to the point of uselessness in 3 years...

  3. Fits what Nicholas G. Carr predicts in HBR by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting
    The article dovetails nicely with Nicholas Carr's Harvard Business Review article IT Doesn't Matter in which Carr states that:
    • IT is now infrastructure technology and a commodity item,
    • the cost of failing to maintain the IT infrastructure is extremely high (i.e., IT is a basic requirement of doing business; losing your IT infrastructure for even an hour may be very costly),
    • most companies in any given industry have the same IT, and thus
    • IT no longer confers any strategic advantage.


    Carr claims that for the above reasons:

    • IT should "be boring",
    • CIOs should *avoid* adopting the latest technology, since statistics show that early adoption confers no advantages,
    • CIOs should concentrate on minimizing risks instead.
  4. Howto: Replace Commercial with Open source by TallEmu · · Score: 4, Interesting

    OK, so take the challenge. Which Open Source applications (client and server) can *really* be used in place of other expensive solutions.

    Remember, companies like their Outlook for Calendar, contacts and email - hooked up to an expensive Exchange box running on Win2k.

    Then we need a web server, say, Apache, but unfortunately the existing content may be written in ASP or Cold Fusion.

    Of course, this is probably all connected up to SQL Server or MSDE.

    What about backup utilities (remember boys and girls, there's still Windows on the desktop) and we need Antivirus too.

    Now, suppose that I am the manager of a company and I want to do all that, to SAVE me money, but I want everything I had before. Unreasonable? Nope, I am a typical customer.

    Question is, can it be done??

  5. Re:Mores law also is affecting buying decisions. by pi_rules · · Score: 4, Interesting
    The desktop == mainframe. They are no longer where the industry is and the embedded/pda/cell phone is the next IT revolution. They are still evolving and thats where I guess the new market is.


    Nah, it's another history-repeats-itself problem. We're going back to the thin-client environment. PC support costs are growing out of control and managing all the problems involved in deploying corporate apps on them are getting higher and higher. We're going to hit another thin-client connects to "mainframe" environment pretty quickly.

    Bandwidth across frame relays will become more and more neccessary and client machines will become more disposable. You'll get a base OS with your neccessary applications that are 'stock' on it anything special to that corp will be served up via a web-services type interface on a dumbed down client app or browser. No more pushing upgrades to systems -- you just update the logic at the backend and viola -- new app.

    Just like when you'd hook up to the IBM mainframe ala 3270 terminal emulation and enter your work into a COBOL app -- which was before my time. It's rather exciting to me, as I've been thinking thin client apps since I started programming seriously, circa 1998 :).
  6. Bucking the trend by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm posting anonymously because I relate some obscure details of my company's network.... Our company is in the student loan financing business, and as the economy gets worse and more people return to school, we find a larger market to do business in. We're experiencing growth at a time when most companies aren't doing major upgrades and changing their network.

    This year alone, we're upgrading desktops for a department, rolling out another 150 new ones for a new department ongoing through December, upgrading our achingly old/slow NT 4.0 domain to a (hopefully) easier to maintain win2k3 domain, and replacing our aging nightmare AS/400 with a spiffy new linux application server delivering said app through a web-client written in java.

    This year, we hired another guy--an engineer, not a lackey--and we may hire a technician in September if our new team grows as rapidly as we anticipate. Plus, we're building a new data center and populating it with 75% new equipment. The company is quite profitable, and we've never been in better shape.

    Sure, there are companies cutting back, but some industries (like mine) are growing. Anybody else experiencing any kind of growth or major $ projects this year?