Frameworks
Depressing Developments
How is your organization weathering the downturn?
The economic downturn doesn't offer many places to hide. Gartner predicts that
global IT spending this year will decline 3.8
percent from 2008. How is this slowdown
affecting the .NET developer community?
We checked in with developers and ISVs to
get a sense of how they're adapting as
Tech-Ed North America 2009 approaches.
The results, which are the basis of this
month's cover story
, were enlightening.
It turns out that different sectors are
experiencing different levels of dislocation.
One survey respondent in the building
industry says "all new development is on
hold, we are working on maintenenance
only." But few are taking it harder than
the auto industry.
A developer at a supplier of steering
columns and shifters for auto and
trucking manufacturers from Michigan
says, "Our departmental budgets are
virtually non-existent."
Similar tales of layoffs, cutbacks and
bare maintenance-only budgets abound in
the travel, finance, energy utility and other
sectors. Heck, even collection agencies are
hurting. "Yes, we have a lot of incoming
business. But while placements are up,
collections numbers are down, and we
can't spend money for new projects," says
the information services director of a
Houston-based collection agency.
Not everyone is cutting back.
Government, military, security and areas of
health care remain active. Respondents
working in the U.S. Army and Air Force say
dev activity is strong, and one government
developer writes, "We're moving forward
with all current initiatives as planned.
Funding, while potentially reduced, will just
extend the time toward project completion."
How is your dev organization weathering
the downturn? And how is the slowdown
impacting your ability to adopt major
new Microsoft technologies? E-mail me at
mdesmond@1105media.com
.
About the Author
Michael Desmond is editor in chief of Visual Studio Magazine and former editor in chief of Redmond Developer News. He has served
as senior editor of news at PC World and executive editor at Multimedia
World magazine, and has written for dozens of publications and Web sites.
Desmond has also written four computing books, including Microsoft
Office 2003 in 10 Simple Steps or Less.