“IT, we’ve seen, can increase productivity in some applications and in some industries, though when you look at other applications in other industries you don’t really see any effect, because the cost and the complexity outweigh the productivity gains. One thing we seem to have seen is that as you link computer systems together, as they become more networked, the likelihood of gaining productivity gains increases. So I think we can make an assumption, and we’re going to have to wait and see if this comes true, that the cloud computing model or the utility computing model because it’s built on an easier sharing of applications and data may in fact boost productivity more than the old fragmented model where everybody had to build and run their own systems.” Nicholas Carr, author of “Does IT Matter?”