Data Center Spending and Economic Conditions

As part of the SearchDataCenter.com Advisory Board, I recently answered the question “How do you see economic conditions changing for data centers today versus late 2008?” The follow-on question was “How do you see data center strategies or operations changing to meet today’s economic conditions?” Here’s part of my answer:

To hear some of our clients tell it, as older high priced IT management systems are rolling off maintenance agreements, IT shops are evaluating new, cheaper options, be they closed source, open source or SaaS (Software as a Service). There’s a certain ‘what have you done for me lately’ feel going on in purchasing. Elder companies (incumbent vendors) are retooling some offerings to SaaS form-factors to meet some of those demands, while others are less tactical in their response.

In general, myself and the other advisory board members were optimistic, but there was some gloom and doom. Check out the full answers over there.