JPMorgan Chase, the massive financial institution, has a expertise employees of 55,000, up from about 50,000 earlier than the pandemic. It has employed folks with abilities in cloud computing, knowledge science, A.I. and cybersecurity, and the financial institution will proceed so as to add folks selectively, mentioned Lori Beer, the financial institution’s world chief info officer.
World expertise surveys level to the weak point in spending on {hardware}. After a pandemic surge, gross sales of non-public computer systems and smartphones for distant work and to customers have fallen sharply. Two main expertise analysis corporations, Gartner and IDC, have lowered their development forecasts in latest months, citing a continued droop in private computer systems, the turbulent financial system and a powerful greenback.
However enterprise funding, particularly in software program, stays pretty sturdy. John-David Lovelock, Gartner’s chief forecaster, mentioned spending was rising in each business he tracks and called that trend “recession-proof.” His counterpart at IDC, Stephen Minton, mentioned enterprise funding in expertise was not resistant to a downturn however was “extra resilient than it’s ever been.”
Gross sales of distant cloud computing and software program could also be slowing, however solely from the stratospheric heights of the pandemic. Amazon reported this month that its extremely worthwhile cloud enterprise, Amazon Internet Companies, the business chief, was producing income at an annual price of greater than $80 billion and had grown 20 p.c within the fourth quarter. Microsoft, the second-largest cloud firm, reported that sales of Azure, its flagship cloud product, had grown 31 p.c.
The latest outcomes for expertise suppliers to enterprise present an identical sample. Suppliers targeted on serving to corporations convert to digital operations and cloud computing are doing properly, together with Accenture, Oracle and ServiceNow. IBM introduced job cuts however for companies it’s shedding; its cloud and A.I. gross sales are sturdy.
Salesforce, a maker of customer-management software program, is chopping jobs and is a goal of activist shareholders. However their argument is that Salesforce ought to cut back bills to extend income. The corporate’s income grew 14 p.c in the newest quarter.
The relentless advance of software program in almost each business makes tech spending much less cyclical.
Take the automotive enterprise. A contemporary car is changing into “a car that’s actually outlined by software program,” mentioned Alan Wexler, a senior vp for innovation and development at Basic Motors.
