According to technology research guru Michael Osterman with Network World, there may be an upside to the current global financial problems that may actually boost spending in certain key areas of the messaging and collaboration space.

Better Tracking of Communication

The problems faced by many companies on Wall Street will certainly result in increased scrutiny and oversight of any company in the financial services space over the next few years. This should lead to renewed and increased interest in archiving and related data management technologies and services that will allow organizations to get a better handle on what is happening in their organizations.

Better Tracking of Costs

There will likely be increased scrutiny of the costs associated with messaging, collaboration and other communication capabilities. Our research shows that the vast majority of communications-oriented decision makers cannot accurately estimate the cost of providing services to their users. I believe this will change and that many more decision makers will be taking a closer look at these costs, looking for ways to trim them. This should favor the use of hosted and managed services, particularly for smaller companies where the hosted/managed paradigm can generally provide a cost advantage.

Better Security

Our current financial problems will also result in greater interest in the use of hybrid security services, in which cloud-based services will be used in combination with on-premise infrastructure to provide improved capabilities and lower long-term costs. Because cloud-based services act as buffer for on-premise systems, they can absorb spikes in spam and malware without necessitating near-term additions to on-premise systems.