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Obama Plans Brighten IT Prospects

If all you've heard is business complain that increased taxes and government regulation is driving investment and innovation abroad or is otherwise bad for business, you haven't been listening to IT vendors.

The flip side of regulation is, of course, compliance, which drives an entire army of lawyers, auditors and enforcement types. But it also drives a legion of software and hardware vendors selling applications and devices to help business comply with new regulations.

Doug Howard, chief strategy officer for security vendor Perimeter, told me with a smile that he's heard the word "IT" come out of President Obama's mouth more times in the five months he's been in office than from any other president in a full eight years -- and that includes the guy whose vice president helped popularize the Internet (he really did, no joke). In addition to being tech-savvy, the administration is creating an environment that is healthy for IT to say the least. "It looks like the trends are all in our favor," Howard said.

It goes without saying that security firms like Perimeter are going to be happy with moves like the one made by Defense Secretary Bob Gates today, raising cybersecurity to an even higher level of priority than ever before. Security is like email, in that customers aren't going to scrimp on something that's seen as mission critical.

By promoting the use of SaaS by states and federal agencies, the Administration is also giving cloud computing the Good White House keeping seal of approval, not only by signaling to mainstream business executives that SaaS must be okay if a tech wonk like Obama is willing to use it, but by giving vendors an easy sales pitch (don't tell me your IT staff is more paranoid than Rahm Emmanuel).

And don't think the Obama administration is playing favorites with security or SaaS vendors: mobile device manufacturers, social networks, virtualization technology vendors, not to mention health IT, energy measurement device makers and wireless broadband providers all benefit from the new Administration's focus on IT.

So the next time you're trapped with your knee-jerk anti-government in-laws (yes, I speak from experience), don't waste your breath arguing (facts are irrelevant at the dinner table); but don't feel too bad about Big Brother, the black helicopters, or creeping socialism either, because the truth is, regulation can definitely be good for business.

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