Down to business: What could doom the IT recovery?

The IT industry appears to be rumbling back, even if the economy remains jammed in a ditch on the side of the road. Several IT advisory firms have issued optimistic forecasts, most bullish among them Forrester Research, which sees U.S. tech spending growing 6.6% this year -- more than twice as fast as the overall economy -- after declining 8.2% in 2009.

The latest positive evidence comes from an industry group, CompTIA, whose IT confidence index rose 6.3 points in December -- to 56.6 on a 100-point scale -- marking the first time since the index was started last June that industry executives, on balance, are more positive than negative. The index is based on a survey of execs at 300 U.S.-based IT vendors, aggregating their opinions of their company, the industry, and the U.S. economy. CompTIA forecasts an additional 6.5-point increase in the confidence index over the next six months.

Read Rob Preston complete blog at Information Week>>