The stories of tragedy and triumph emerging from the Victorian bushfires and North Queensland floods have dominated the newspapers, televisions and PC monitors of the nation for the last few weeks. Tales of personal loss that were viewed with empathy as the horror unfolded have now given way to consternation regarding rhetoric of organisational inaction by various governments and their agencies. The first such stories to emerge surrounded delays in the implementation of a Community Information and Warning System. This was a system, having been trialled for flooding, which could have been extended to bushfire warnings (Early bushfire alert cover-up exposed, Australian IT, 13th February 2009). But it was another of these stories that grabbed our attention as being most relevant to future solutions and involved the limitations of the Victorian Government’s capability to provide Google with access to essential data about fires on crown land. (Vic Govt limited Google's bushfire map, ZDNet Australia, 13th February 2009).

It will be a great but predictable shame that this decade of immense prosperity will be remembered as the decade of massive industry bailouts. And given that recessions are typically times of cleanout and renewal, the “save the dying” approach is at odds with long-term success. Why not let natural contest, merger and acquisition activity take its course? Over the decades billions of dollars have been thrown at industries such as car-making, which in Australia was recently awarded a $6 billion rescue package. In America they are still unable to come to terms with the fact that buy-American campaigns and bailouts cannot hold back the tide of a new manufacturing imperialism from North Asia. If the biggest manufacturers can’t make it work, then at what point do we realise that as a nation Australia just isn’t a globally competitive manufacturer?

Major trends for the Technology Infrastrcuture segment of the Australian and near shore markets in 2009. Longhaus defines this segment as including hardware and system software solutions that provide the foundation upon which business software is deployed or through which ICT enabled functionality is accessed. This segment includes: End-user Devices, Servers and processing, Storage solutions and more.

Major trends for the Service Provider segment of the Australian and near shore markets in 2009. Longhaus defines this segment as including vendors and suppliers that offer services involving management practices, business software and technology infrastructure. This segment includes: Managed Service Hosting, Outsourcing, Telecommunications, SaaS and more.

Major trends in ICT related Management Practices within Australian and near shore markets in 2009. Longhaus defines Management Practices as the processes, techniques, and practices associated with the governance and management of ICT as a business, provision of ICT services to the enterprise, and alignment of ICT activity with business outcomes. This segment includes: ICT Service Management, Integrated Portfolio Management, Enterprise Architecture, Governance Risk and Compliance, Enterprise Security and more.