The State & Local Government Technology Investment Curve is an assessment of technology purchases across all 50 states in the United States. The Curve is based upon research from the Center for Digital Government and CDW-G sales data between 2003 and 2006. This is the third of several Technology Investment Curves, and is focused on storage technologies across six categories: backup software, storage software, storage area networks, network attached storage, tape backup and drive arrays.

Of note, the Storage Technology Investment Curve is a measure of mass purchasing across a state and is not an indicator of innovation, storage architecture or best overall IT practices. The TIC illustrates which states are widely purchasing these core storage technologies across their municipal, county and state agencies.



The CDW-G Technology Investment Curve provides the most accurate, unbiased assessment of technology investment currently available. With more than $1.88 billion in public sector sales, CDW-G data provides an exhaustive, objective national barometer for technology investment within the State & Local government market.

The report by CDW-G assesses technology investments since 2003, which covers the tenure of numerous sales managers, directors and executives. Further, as a multi-vendor provider of technology products and services, CDW-G has several thousand State & Local government customers and more than 1,000 partners.

This is the third Technology Investment Curve. CDW-G will continue to refine the analysis and present similar curves for a variety of technology categories. Currently, CDW-G will focus on developing curves to enhance the market dialogue for State & Local government leaders. No other segments are currently in the production line.

Of note, CDW-G operates State & Local government sales offices in both Illinois and Connecticut. To eliminate the skew associated with these offices, CDW-G calculated and then removed the location effect from these states.



CDW-G developed the curve based on the size, speed, depth and product category of State & Local government storage technology purchases through CDW-G since 2003. The Curve examines data across all of the potential customers within a state including municipal, county and state-level government departments. To build the Curve, CDW-G:
  • Defined the universe of potential State & Local government customers
    • CDW-G worked with the Center for Digital Government to define the universe of possible customers at the state, county and city levels for every state
    • The research was based on a survey of governments and a state-by-state analysis
  • Examined its customer data:
    • CDW-G examined purchase records for its several thousand State & Local government customers between 2003 and 2006
    • CDW-G customer analysis focused on six categories of storage technology investments: backup software, storage software, storage area networks, network attached storage, tape backup and drive arrays
  • Compared the State & Local government universe to customer data
    • CDW-G mapped its customer information to the universe of State & Local government agencies to assess depth and product category
    • CDW-G compared trends in each category between 2003 and 2006 to identify the Lead Investors, Early Investors and Early Majority in storage technology
All government entities at the state, county and municipal levels are included in the assessment. The CDW-G State & Local Government Technology Investment Curve looks at all purchases within a state from all potential government customers to determine the investment ranking.

Incorporating several thousand data points from all 50 states, the CDW-G State & Local Government Technology Investment Curve has a margin of error of less than 2 percent.