The Federal Budget recently announced significant cuts to public service budgets and public service staff numbers. They will impact on government IT.

By all accounts the economy is stronger now than it was 12 months ago, but it is also clear that companies are still moving cautiously, and for the bulk of IT that means continuing to do more with what you have, which is at least better than doing more with less.

Despite some hopeful fits and starts, the U.S. economy didn't escape the doldrums in 2011. Unemployment remained stubbornly high, the U.S. debt-ceiling crisis and budget scuffles spurred more economic uncertainty, and Europe's ongoing financial problems threatened global markets. If there's an upside, at least it's familiar territory.

IT budgets and responsibilities are moving out of the control of IT departments and into the hands of others, thanks to trends such as consumerisation and cloud computing, Gartner says in its vision for 2012 and the coming years.

It's not just the new coalition government that's looking to cut spending, UK's CIOs are set to embark on a cost-reduction exercise too, according to research from Micro Focus. The company has found that 50 percent of UK respondents expected IT budgets to be cut again in 2010, despite the more favourable economic conditions.

Scenario: The global recession of 2009 hit a formerly fast-growing US$1.2 billion manufacturer hard, bringing its customary 20 percent annual growth to a halt. Rolling budget reductions cut business and IT resources deeply, leaving technology resources spread thin. Everyone in IT feels overworked, yet the slow-motion economic recovery is renewing a push for growth. What should this CIO do to position IT to support business expansion?

IT budgets will only rise by a weighted global average of 1.3 percent in nominal terms in 2010, compared with 2009 levels where IT budgets declined 8.1 percent, said Gartner following the release of results from the 2010 CIO survey by Gartner Executive Programs (EXP).

The renewal of a $36 million ICT services contract between the South Australian government and Dimension Data last week, that saw the value of the deal drop by $4 million but with an increased scope, is a sign of things to come, according to the state’s CIO.

As is the case with selling McMansions, Mercedes SUVs and 63-inch HDTVs, pushing expensive technology products and services during a global recession isn't an enviable task. Late last year, when the economic meltdown began and corporate IT budgets went under the CFO's knife, tech vendors had to hastily reevaluate their marketing messages and overhaul their sales tactics.