The global recession has hit the IT industry hard, as Gartner projected earlier this year that it would result in more losses than during the 2001 dot-com implosion. The firm projects that global IT spending will total $3.2 trillion in 2009, a decline of roughly 4% from the $3.3 trillion spent on IT in 2008. Hardware will be the hardest hit and will experience a 15% decline in spending this year, Gartner says.