Can the problems impacting the financial sector impact technology companies? You bet they can!

We know there is a credit crunch and that the economy is slowing. This is translating into falling revenues and a drop in new orders. Tech company management is hunkering down. So are consumers. IT budgets are stagnant or falling and cost cutting will be the order of the day. Below we look at some specific ways that the tech sector will be reacting to this situation.

Surprisingly, there are some impacts that may turn out to be net positive for certain tech companies. As expected, though, there are also some seriously negative impacts.

Positive Impacts --

1. Increase in cloud computing - companies may look to avoid buying data center equipment and will instead look for a "pay-as-you-go" model. Beneficiaries Amazon (AMZN), Google (GOOG), eventually Microsoft (MSFT)

2. Increase in usage of open source products - generally cheaper to acquire and implement than the licensed products from vendors like Microsoft and Oracle, we may see an increase in the adoption rate of Linux operating systems, Apache web server software, Google Docs ... Beneficiaries could be Red Hat (RHT), Google or Citrix (CTXS) who now owns open source virtualization vendor XenSource

3. Industry Consolidation - those companies with money will acquire companies with good technology who are suffering due to this crisis. With financing difficult and expensive, those companies sitting on plenty of cash will be able to out-maneuver their competitors. Think of Oracle (ORCL) and Microsoft (MSFT) scooping up more software companies on the cheap. Intel (INTC) and IBM also have the heft to be players here.

4. Integration - Consolidation among tech companies and in the financial sector will increase the need for system integration services and software. This could benefit big consulting companies like Accenture (ACN) and the HP/EDS combination, for example. Also some of the software companies specializing in products that tie systems together like Informatica (INFA) and Pervasive Software (PVSW).

5. Cost cutting is in - look for more emphasis on virtualization in an effort to reduce data center costs.