BOSTON/SAN FRANCISCo, USA: With fears of a U.S. recession bearing down on technology companies, the sector's safest bets appear to be in business software, while makers of computers and consumer gadgets look vulnerable.

John Chambers, chief executive of tech bellwether Cisco Systems Inc, said on Wednesday that CEOs in the United States and Europe were being more cautious than he has seen in many years.

"If there's a downturn, not all sectors will be affected equally," said Stephen Minton of market researcher IDC. "The first round of cuts would affect the PCs and the devices and the software that goes directly onto those PCs and devices."

Analysts say business software makers look better placed to ride out a recession as they help boost companies' efficiency, but prospects are dimmer for hardware manufacturers like Dell Inc and Hewlett-Packard Co and chip makers Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

Nucleus Research analyst Rebecca Wettemann, who helps executives figure out how tech investments can boost or hurt profits, said cost-conscious companies are now willing to use hardware, such as Cisco routers, until it breaks.

"They are saying: 'If I can't find a direct relationship between the infrastructure and the value it is delivering, then I am hesitant to invest,'" Wettemann said.

Tech research firm Gartner forecasts global spending on business software to grow 8.2 percent this year to $191 billion, which is more than twice as fast as estimated hardware sales growth of 3.4 percent to $394 billion.

AMR Research Senior Vice President Jim Shepherd said he now expects overall corporate technology spending to rise just 2 percent this year, compared with his firm's October forecast of 4 percent growth, based on conversations with tech executives.

Data storage equipment makers EMC Corp, HP and Sun Microsystems Inc are vulnerable because of excess capacity among many corporations, said Yankee Group analyst Zeus Kerravala. HP and Sun also sell servers and software.

"Hardware is becoming increasingly commoditized," said Kim Caughey, a senior analyst and portfolio manager at Fort Pitt Capital Group, which oversees about $1.2 billion for clients.

"If you are going to invest money in a downturn, you will want to invest in productivity," Caughey said. "The thing that is not a commodity and is boosting productivity the most would be process (software) and services."

In some cases, a breed of computer program known as virtualization software can boost the efficiency of existing equipment. VMware Inc, for example, sells products that allow one server computer to do the work of 10 or more machines. Citrix Systems Inc offers similar products.

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