With IT budgets now tight, firms are increasingly buying computers based on PC technology.
Equally important, buyers are starting to spend their IT budgets more wisely.
At least £2bn would be cut from IT budgets by putting a freeze on new contracts.
Ten years ago customers spent a much bigger chunk of their IT budgets on computer hardware than they do now.
The largest single item, local government, fell by 18% last year, as councils cut their IT budgets to 2004 levels.
A poll conducted by CIO magazine in March found that respondents expected their IT budgets to grow by more than 7% in the coming year, and were hiring.
In the case of Oracle databases, most fees are high and per processor, which means things get expensive quickly, eating up IT budgets.
European and North American companies allocate the same amount of their total IT budgets to hardware.
As times get tougher, companies are tempted to cut back on capital spending, including IT budgets.
Though IT budgets are expected to be flat this year, security products firewalls, intrusion detection and anti-virus software will eat up 4.1% of IT budgets, up from 3.3% last year.
Companies who switch to the cloud can cut their IT budgets by at least a third and manage upgrades easily.
