Larry Ellison Bets On IT For The IT DepartmentLarry Ellison Bets On IT For The IT Department

Will IT spend on itself in this recession, buying technology aimed at helping CIOs run a more efficient IT shop? Oracle is betting the answer is "yes," based on its latest acquisition plan.IT is too often afraid to spend money on technology to improve the efficiency of its own operations. I wrote last month about two CIOs wrestling with whether to invest in IT for the IT group during this downturn. Hewlett-Packard CIO Randy Mott makes his case for such investments in this article, including his concept of the "revenue of IT."

Now Oracle again shows its faith in IT for IT with its plans to buy a company, mValent, that sells software for application configuration management.

Meanwhile, BMC, whose software also tackles data center automation, performed better in its most recent quarter than analysts expected, its revenue grew 6% from a year ago, and it raised its earnings outlook for the fiscal year.

Now just might be the right time to spend on IT for IT.