ZDNet has an article on an IDC survey that indicates that companies are ready to start spending on information technology. According to the survey, 85% of the CEO's and CIO's out of 1,000 participants indicated that they plan to maintain or increase their spending on information technology. This spending will primarily be in routine infrastructure upgrades, but it's definitely a glimmer of hope for the technology sector. The other interesting thing from the article is that an increasing amount of spending on information technology is being driven outside of the IT organization, typically by the CEO and department heads. This seems to be a more natural and sustainable model, since technology spending should really be driven by business needs, not by "cool" technology.

The ZDNet article reminded me of the bold prediction made by Brian Halla, CEO of National Semiconductor. During his Comdex speech in November, 2002, Halla made the prediction that the semiconductor industry would start its recovery on 21 June, 2003. This prediction was based on research from Dr. Amad Bahai, a Stanford University professor and National Semiconductor CTO, using a complex mathematical model based on chaos theory, neural networks, linear and non-linear regression, and deterministic progression. I'm sure there was also a certain amount of good old fashioned guesswork in the model as well.

My own experience in the enterprise software space is that people are now starting to spend money on technology. Technology spending didn't go away completely in 2001-2002, but it definitely feels like budgets are starting to open up and companies are beginning to realize that IT spending can help them be more competitive in a down economy. I guess we'll all have to wait and see what happens in the coming months.