[The Duke]

My little IT company resembles the one described in the article, but I've got to say that we're doing the best business we've done in 25 years (including the dot.com days).

I attribute it either to many of our competitors going out of business or possibly me becoming more paranoid about the economy and marketing smarter.

Some of my customers, also in the IT business, are seeing unexpected surges.

Maybe it's the investor-fueled IT businesses that are experiencing difficulties(?)

[livius]

According to the WSJ, IT businesses are having a boom time. I don’t know why this would be, except perhaps that they and their technologies are more international or are linked to international businesses, so they are being pulled up by demand outside the US or the effects of that demand.

[CutePuppy]

Full article does address exactly this aspect - depends on the nature or a mix of company's IT products or services:

..... Some of the small businesses that closed their doors did not move quickly enough from capital-expenditure-based IT solutions to annuity-based IT services. But many were simply walloped by macroeconomic issues, which set into motion a flurry of federal government bailouts: large companies such as insurer AIG, General Motors and even financial institutions like Citigroup, among them. .....

Shea has watched three competitors go out of business in the past several years. And he knows if not for his company's shift into managed services, Alpha NetSolutions might not even be around today. .....

And as you said, fewer remaining businesses share in either the surge of capex or compete for increased demand in services.

[eggman]

My guess for the uptick would be companies that downsized staff and slashed budgets last year are now looking to get some projects moving and don’t have the staff to do it. They’re not confident of a recovery so they are putting off hiring support staff but can’t continue to put off needed work.