A look at the post-recession business and IT landscape

Business and IT leaders have slashed expenses and limited capital purchases due to the global economic retrenchment. With the economy now poised to begin a very modest, multiyear recovery, IDC expects these "new normal" economic operating practices will continue to shape key decisions about IT operations and investments for years to come.

"The changes in business and technology management that were implemented in response to the recession appear to have become part of the permanent ongoing business framework," said Joseph C. Pucciarelli, program director, Technology Financial & Executive Strategies at IDC. "The consequences of these changes are that companies will seek to lengthen the deployed life of their hardware assets, minimize spending on software upgrades, and look to service providers to selectively solve pressing maintenance and technical problems."

At the same time as these "new normal" economic operating practices are taking hold, the IT technology and platforms seem poised for a period of significant change. After an extended period of perfecting and refining the systems, architectures, and technologies that were on the table at the end of the last recession, IDC expects the next few years will see considerable IT platform change as companies are drawn toward the benefits of next-generation datacenters, new software offerings, and off-premise computing options.

As the potential of "next generation" IT comes up against "new normal" spending practices, IDC believes five management practices will emerge at the core of IT organization initiatives.