Leaving Redmond

Let me quote freely from this USA Today blog post on the eve of the Microsoft Windows 7 launch that my colleague Bob Sutor Tweeted my way earlier today.

According to a survey conducted by Boston research firm Chadwick Martin Bailey, of 145 IT pros 51% plan to standardize on Windows 7 for laptops and desktops.  Thirty-eight percent intend to do so with netbooks over the next couple of years.

But at what cost?

• Opting out of Windows 7 can save the typical American business with 20 or fewer employees up to $40,000.
• Government agencies crunched by budget shortfalls can save big by avoiding the switch to Windows 7; with 14.7 million state and local government employees and 2.5 million federal workers, saving up to $2,000 per employee would be a huge relief to government spending.

But as the story continues, rather than jump over Vista from XP to 7 (which in many cases will require significant hardware upgrades), why not leave the Windows merry go round, dump it altogether, and move towards a lower-cost alternative?

Say, for IBM and Linux distributor Canonicals’ new Ubuntu offering.

Gutenberg’s Help Desk

In celebration of all the IT managers finding their way to Orlando for the Gartner Symposium this week — particularly for those of you who try to help your well-intentioned but clueless colleagues on the help desk — well, this oldy but goody video is for all of you.

I like to refer to it as Gutenberg’s Help Desk.

Gartner: IT Spending (Mini) Rebound

The Gartner Group issued guidance on IT spending as it heads into the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo in Orlando.

The bad news: The IT industry is exiting its worst year ever, with worldwide IT spending expected to decline 5.2 percent this year.

The good news: Gartner is projecting a 3.3 percent increase in IT spending in 2010, with a total forecast of $3.3 trillion.

Diving into the details a bit, the hardware market has struggled most, with a 16.5 percent decline, and with spending expected to be flat in 2010.

Worldwide IT services spending is expected to grow 4.5 percent, and worldwide software spending is expected to grow 4.8 percent.

But what’s more interesting to me were the suggested additional topics, which included more focus on business intelligence, virtualization, and, surprise surprise, social media.

Social media on the IT leaders’ agenda?  Yep.  Gartner says that organizations are starting to “scale their efforts in this space.”

Does that mean it will soon evolve into the anti-social media?

Dick Tracy

Whew.  It’s already Tuesday and I’m already hysterical.

Only five days until I leave for Viva Las Vegas, to attend, blog, and podcast the IBM Information on Demand event.

It’s not too late for you to join me in Vegas..but remember, whatever happens in Vegas ends up on my blog!

Too bad I won’t be able to carry this tricked out, Dick Tracy BlackBerry watch with me to the Strip.

I could be sitting there, hanging at the blackjack tables, staring down at my watch…only to get notified that my mom is calling me to tell me to get plenty of rest, all right there on my Dick Tracy watch.

All the cool BlackBerry kids will soon have one.

What it does is, other than allow you to be cool, is it lets you check your incoming BlackBerry messages without having to actually pull the BlackBerry out of its holster.

What will they think of next?

Well, I’m going to tell you.  And though it won’t necessarily help you buy a new BlackBerry Dick Tracy watch, it will potentially help you buy some needed IT investments.

IBM Global Financing, the lending and leasing business segment of IBM, is announcing a toolkit of financing offerings to help companies step up to smarter, more efficient technologies.

Starting this month, credit-qualified companies and business partners can take advantage of a smart financing toolkit of opportunities that include deferred payments, zero percent financing and attractive prices on IBM Certified Pre-owned Equipment.

Smaller and mid-sized companies can also benefit from a specially configured set of cross IBM solutions that they can acquire at a low monthly price per month, per user.

“For many cash and credit constrained companies, stepping up to Smarter IT can be challenging,” said IBM’s Dan Ransdell, client financing general manager, IBM Global Financing. “IBM Global Financing is helping to make that evolution even simpler with zero percent financing on IBM software and no-payment deferrals on IBM solutions until 2010.”

IBM Global Financing is also reminding customers in the US that they have a few months left to take advantage of IBM Global Financing’s enhanced IT lending rates and deferrals for hardware made possible by the 2009 Economic Stimulus Act.

Here’s hoping I don’t need my own personal economic stimulus after five days in Veggas.