Improved security features and easier network deployment should make users happy. Microsoft also claims Vista is more stable than Windows XP. Aside from having an improved user interface, the company says the new operating system will make finding stuff on one's hard drive easier; file sharing is also supposed to be better.

As global outsourcing evolves to 'multisourcing' based on utility-style IT services, components for composite application in an SOA (Service-Oriented Architecture) environment can come from external service providers as well as in-house sources.

'Organizations that figure out how to do multisourcing will win,' said Puneet Pushkarna, managing director of BPO firm Headstrong.

Gartner also predicts that through 2008 more than 50 percent of new outsourcing deals will have an IT utility services component.

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) service providers are also predicted to be big winners moving forward. According to Gartner's forecast, BPO service providers will reap around $11 billion from insurance companies by 2008 as insurers update their legacy systems.