Today’s New York Times writes about a technology recovery of apparently “diminished expectations,” pointing to the satisfied—or, at least, relieved—reaction on Wall Street to the pretty good profit reports that have come recently from IBM, Microsoft, eBay, Google and Amazon.com. The article, A Technology Recovery in Post-Exuberant Times, points to a long horizon of pretty good, but not great, profits for the technology sector. That’s partly an unsurprising evolution of predictable economic dynamics—namely, the maturing of an industry. But, more unique to this situation, the article also attributes the slow growth to the low-cost computing revolution. Because of the steady improvement of technology, says the Times, “companies can do more with less—typically by using smaller building blocks of hardware and software.” Will we ever hear the end of more-with-less? If your boss is into that, you may hear a push for the smaller building blocks. On a brighter note, Steven Milunovich, an analyst at Merrill Lynch, told the Times that the low-cost technology shift means that bargaining power (and consequently profit) swings from technology suppliers to technology users. “So from an investors’ perspective,” he said, “it may be smarter to look for companies that are using technology for competitive advantage.” Here’s your angle! You want to be that company, don’t you? Your CEO wants to lead the company that investors love, right? You can’t skimp on doing IT right. (For more on using IT for competitive advantage, see the CIO Research Report Optimizing Business Performance: Using IT for Competitive Advantage. It shares the findings of a study CIO magazine conducted with PRTM, and The InterUnity Group. Oh, and don’t miss Part II or Part III of the report!) (Access to The New York Times online requires registration.) Related content opinion Website spoofing: risks, threats, and mitigation strategies for CIOs In this article, we take a look at how CIOs can tackle website spoofing attacks and the best ways to prevent them. By Yash Mehta Dec 01, 2023 5 mins CIO Cyberattacks Security brandpost Sponsored by Catchpoint Systems Inc. Gain full visibility across the Internet Stack with IPM (Internet Performance Monitoring) Today’s IT systems have more points of failure than ever before. Internet Performance Monitoring provides visibility over external networks and services to mitigate outages. By Neal Weinberg Dec 01, 2023 3 mins IT Operations brandpost Sponsored by Zscaler How customers can save money during periods of economic uncertainty Now is the time to overcome the challenges of perimeter-based architectures and reduce costs with zero trust. By Zscaler Dec 01, 2023 4 mins Security feature LexisNexis rises to the generative AI challenge With generative AI, the legal information services giant faces its most formidable disruptor yet. That’s why CTO Jeff Reihl is embracing and enhancing the technology swiftly to keep in front of the competition. By Paula Rooney Dec 01, 2023 6 mins Generative AI Digital Transformation Cloud Computing Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe