Technology Sector - Performance and Outlook - Update

Enterprise Tech. Sector - IT Infrastructure Sales - Performance and Outlook (Nov. 17, 2008)
**

October 2008 came in weaker than expected for enterprise server sales and enterprise storage sales. Enterprise networking sales came in as expected. November so far has started slow however we have seen a steady increase. IF we can maintain a stable upward trend for the remainder of November we should be back on target. HOWEVER - December will be a bear and retard the actual qrt over qrt number down to1% or possibly zero.

The most common MACRO trend across all businesses, verticals, sellers and buyers has been continued tight credit.

POSITIVE NOTE: 2009 It budgeting meetings are indicating a slow start for 2009 however picking up in the second half. This corroborates previous preliminary data and information we obtained in the last 45 days from clients, vendors and SI's.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
**2008 Q2 to Q3 Forecast: -0.49% Actual: -1.27%
**2008 Q3 to Q4 Forecast: 1.86% Actual: Available after Dec31

**2008 Q4 to 2009 Q1 Outlook: Flat for the first quarter of 2009. This compares unfavorably to the previous three years of Q1 performance averaging 4.11 Qrt over Qrt growth.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Comments on this blog are specific to our narrowed observations in North America and are specific to our exposure and resulting interpretations. Comments are not predictions of any general technology sector or specific vendor’s performance. It would be irresponsible for readers to make decisions based on our comments and opinions. They reflect only our own unique experiences and exposure to vendors, clients and the industry.


(*1)
The IT enterprise infrastructure sector is defined as enterprise server, enterprise networking and enterprise storage products and solutions as well as those technologies that are abutted against and entwined within. ie WOC (wan optimization controller) technologies, de-duplication technologies, server and storage virtualization,.. etc.