For many in IT, 2009 was a nuclear winter, with resources stripped away as companies struggled to survive. Yet many were tasked with using IT to increase the company's efficiency, enter the few new growth markets, or fix a fundamental problem that threatened the company's ability to stay in business.
Some technology leaders rose to the challenge, despite the lack of resources. That's a common situation for many of this year's InfoWorld CTO 25 Award winners. One even became CEO as a result.
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Of course, not every company was in make-or-break mode, and several CTO 25 winners demonstrated the value of innovation in technology and management in any economy.
So, without further ado, here are the 2010 InfoWorld CTO 25 winners, in alphabetical order. You can read what each one did to merit the award on the pages that follow.
* Scott Baynes, CTO, Netgain: A virtualization change-out with several twists
* Brian Beck, IT director, Greater Educational Opportunities Foundation: Using desktop virtualization to give more students PC access
* Amy Bourne, vice president of technology development, Centro: Revitalizing a broken IT staff -- just in time for a make-or-break business launch
* Chris Brady, CIO, Dealer Services: Predictive technology avoids the recession's impact
* Aris Buinevicius, CTO, ChannelAdvisor: Making a BI consolidation happen in a live environment
* John Burke, CIO, Ambit Energy: Using smart meters to lower energy costs for credit-challenged users
* Chad Burney, assistant vice president for IT, COCC: Bringing SSDs into the core of the data center
* Tom Conophy, CIO, InterContinental Hotels Group: Driving a hotel group to financial and energy efficiency
* Phiroz P. Darukhanavala, CTO, BP: Immersive 3-D improves training and operations
* Scott Dillon, head of technology infrastructure services, Wells Fargo & Co.: Standardizing while making a major merger work