Businesses should create a "recession budget" for their IT department in case the worst economic forecasts come true, according to Gartner.
The analyst firm says existing plans for IT budgets should be supplemented by an alternative, smaller budget because of recent turmoil in credit markets and general economic uncertainty.
"Although the financial outlook for 2008 remains far from certain, waiting for a clear economic trend to appear prior to taking action is not a prudent option," said Ken McGee, vice president and Gartner fellow.
"There is already sufficient concern about the possibility of a business slowdown for next year, from enough credible and independent sources, to suggest that preparing a backup cost-cutting IT budget now is just plain good management."
Companies' recession budgets should be planned so they can be implemented immediately and they should be at least 10 percent smaller than peak spending levels this year, Gartner said.
Play video
» Blades for mission-critical operations
Advanced features: 
There are currently no comments for this post.