Will 2009 be a tough year for IT departments, and us tech vendors too?  Duh.  Will it be as bad as the article I read today, 2009 - Thomas the Tank's journey to IT Hell?  We shall see.  Too often, tough times inspire dark predictions, preying on our most basic fears of the unknown.

I don't think the IT Boogeyman is hiding under my bed.  I didn't think so in 2001 either.  The winds of change to virtualization and industry standards have been blowing for too many years now - the question is were you an Ant or a Grasshopper? 

For those that never read Aesop's Fables, the lesson is the Grasshopper is screwed. 

If you're well on your way with server virtualization and have been through at least one round of server consolidation, you took a good first step. Good job Ant!  But if there is one truth, oh grasshopper, that I took away from the IT Hell article, it's that the status quo isn't going to cut it in 2009.  I know the IT crowd is a conservative bunch and we live and die by the mantra "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." The only problem is, sometimes if you don't break it yourself, someone or something will come a long and break it for you.

I'm not trying to scare you.  But we can't continue to resist change. 

There's more out there to do to take cost out (TCO) if you're going to be ready for the long winter of 2009.  If want to be a good Ant, you better add network, storage and power consolidation to the top of your shopping list.