recession

Economic downturn = Financial upturn for GroundWork and open source

We are or shortly will be in a recession. While perhaps not cause to celebrate, it's also not cause for alarm as the best companies will emerge all the stronger for the experience.

Good open-source companies will be primary beneficiaries of a downturn, as Stephen Elliot of IDC points out with regard to open-source system management vendors like GroundWork:

With economic uncertainty building on IT organizations, we are seeing enterprise IT organizations tightening their belts when it comes to IT budgets and initiatives. As open source management solutions continue to mature and increase their functionality, they will see more opportunities on the enterprise scale.

I single out GroundWork because I had the opportunity to talk with Dave Lilly, CEO of GroundWork, in advance of next week's Open Source Business Conference 2008 (March 25-26, San Francisco), and got the inside scoop on how the company is doing. GroundWork exemplifies the "unfair advantage" that open-source vendors have when IT buyers actually need the software to work at a reasonable price.… Read more

The days that I'm grateful for proprietary software

Looking at Adobe's excellent quarterly earnings, I have to admit that there are days when I'm grateful for proprietary software. Or, rather, days when I'm grateful for any software company that does well. While a recession may be good for open source, I'm not really going to exult over a market that contracts. I'd rather open source grow with a growing market, rather than grow into a contracting market.

Of course, Adobe's numbers may be anomalous. It has a different buyer/user profile than, say, SAP.

While I'll enjoy seeing Oracle, IBM, … Read more

Where the clap has not subsided

EPISODE 57

While Jeff is still out, we manage to press forward in the most depressing way possible (you'd think Dan Ackerman was on the show). Randall cheers for a recession like its 1999, Xbox 360 kids are kinda crazy (surprise!), and China bans YouTube. All that and more on this episode of the 404!

Listen now: Download today's podcast

With a recession looming, "Rest of World" becomes critical

IBM and others are driving growth outside the US. This will become even more critical as a US recession becomes a near certainty.

It's also why it suddenly makes a lot of sense to be based outside the US if you're a vendor.

Don't get me wrong: there are many difficulties inherent in starting a business outside of the US. The US is the primary market for just about all software vendors, and will be for the foreseeable future, China notwithstanding. If you want to be a serious software player, you have to compete in the US.

But consider the following:… Read more

Can games beat an economic recession?

Whether we're bracing for a major meltdown or shrugging off a minor slump, everyone wants to know what "recession" will mean for each industry. Here's an analysis of one sector in particular--video games. Are games poised to survive a downturn or take a nosedive?

Read the full report on MSNBC: "Is the video-game industry recession-proof?"

IT spending set to fall, find IDC and Forrester

Some believe that a recession won't hit IT hard, but IDC and Forrester are now projecting significant declines in the growth of IT spending in 2008. IDC is pegging global IT market growth of $1.38 trillion, or 5 percent (down from 6 percent growth in 2007), while Forrester sees the IT market growing by 6 percent instead of the 9 percent it had been projecting.

Andrew Bartels, Forrester Research vice president, said the firm's forecast is based on a "mild recession in the U.S. economy in the first two to three quarters of 2008," … Read more

What would a recession mean for IT spending?

Normally IT gets walloped in a recession, with new projects put on hold until the economy thaws. Take the 2001 recession, for example, which saw IT budgets that had been growing 12.9% per year shrink to a 2.8% growth. In such circumstances, enterprises have traditionally placed existing projects on life support while cutting off the air supply to new projects.

But as the New York Times reports, this time around IT spending may not get hit as hard, at least, not everyone will get equally hard:

"You only want to start projects you are dead-serious about," ...said [Pitney Bowes' CIO]. "A downturn really heightens that discipline."… Read more

A design week in NYC: friendlier cabs, greener gadgets, thick crusts, and disco balls

Having just returned from New York City, I wonder whether I find it so intense because that's just how it is or because I tend to overbook my schedule, trying to squeeze in an ambitious number of meetings, rushing back and forth between midtown and downtown. In almost every cab ride I took on this trip, I noticed that many cabs now have a touch screen infotainment system that lets you pay with a credit card, watch TV, or access local city info (including a GPS tracker). I like the credit card option and the GPS but had mixed … Read more

Recession-proof Red Hat?

As Wall Street gets nervous about a looming recession (and only perks up when the government throws more ill-advised ways for people to spend more money on the table), and as more and more companies give cautious to negative outlooks for the future (e.g., Intel), it's worth remembering something that Frank Lara of Stockmasters writes:

Well here's what should be turning investor's heads and help them not worry about selling enough iPods, iPhones, and just overall iRecessionDontNeedCrap items: Red Hat also raised its fiscal 2008 revenue outlook to between $521 million to $523 million, up from $510 million to $520 million.… Read more

On the eve of OnMedia NYC: media and advertising industries still optimistic about 2008

I'm off to New York for the OnMedia conference from January 28-30. The two-and-a-half day event features technology CEOs from Silicon Valley leading presentations and debates with their counterparts in global advertising and media. It will be a dynamic crowd that's coming together to discuss emerging user trends and new opportunities in the marketing, branding, advertising, and public relations industries.

The list of speakers includes web 2.0 entrepreneurs such as Steve Rosenbaum (CEO, Magnify.net), Ami Kassar (Chief Innovation Officer, ideablob), and Matt Colebourne, (CEO, coComment); established content players such as Jim Spanfeller (President, Forbes.com) and … Read more