Historically, the IT industry has been what economists would describe as predominantly a horizontal business, as IT products and services have been used similarly and widely across just about every industry sector. Our industry’s leading hardware and software suppliers provide their products to a broad range of customers, just as the largest IT services firms tend to have substantial cross-industry footprints. On the customer side, IT organizations in different industries often face many similar infrastructure, personal productivity and back-office challenges, and it has always been relatively common for CIOs and other IT professionals to move from one industry sector to another.