Forrester CEO George Colony predicts that the tech spending impact for this recession will be lighter than the 2001-2003 tech depression. He has a few good arguments, but perhaps he's being too optimistic. One of the budget items that gets cut in a downturn is hefty annual fees to analyst firms like Forrester and Gartner.
Of course, we all hope he is right. While the Boston area job market is significantly more diversified these days, enterprise technology is still a big piece. Given that one of the leading employment markets – financial services – is in the trash compactor, we need tech to stay strong. Health care continues to move along, but we're in crisis there too. And education (rounding out our top Boston markets) is feeling the pinch with fewer able to afford the big private college tuition payments after their portfolios are down 40% or more over the past 12 months.
So let's hope the folks at Forrester are right on the money – that we're looking at slowing growth and not massive declines in the enterprise tech sector.
John Treadway 
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