Five trends that will shape business technology in 2009

When downturns hit, there is a certain inevitability to their impact on IT. Declining profits will place tremendous pressure on IT budgets in most sectors and regions. CIOs will be called on to rationalize projects, downsize organizations, renegotiate contracts, and seek out other cost-reduction opportunities. Taken together, this combination of cost pressures and IT organizations that are leaner, larger, and more vital to company goals will have new implications for business technology in 2009. Here's what may be in store:

1) IT and corporate finance converge;

2) Tension around IT budgets increases;

3) organizations that have used IT less successfully in the past will probably throw up their hands and shut off all discretionary;

4) Regulators demand more from IT; and

5) The offshoring and outsourcing landscape shifts.