According to IDC, leasing and financing of IT software and services is on the rise by around 20% per year and hardware leasing and financing is up around 4% per year. And in 2009 the market for leasing and financing is to be at above $100 Billion. The largest of these financiers is IBM Global Financing, with 3,000 employees and a whopping $36 Billion in assets and has promised to finance another two Billion towards American Recovery and Reinvestment Act projects. It seems like the hope though is that when these leases reach maturity that the organizations will be able to roll into new leases or buy new hardware, software and related services without the lease. Although some will likely never go back, given the structured services and hardware deals that allow for a fixed monthly cost to maintain all IT assets.
Then comes the cloud. When it comes time to renew all of the assets, will they be thin clients, netbooks or will the rubber band have snapped back and they’ll be 16 cores? I guess only time will tell, but in the meantime, if you’re looking at leasing to ease cash flow pains at least you know you’re in good company…