IT`s Top 10 Winners of 2010

In a down year for many, there were plenty of big winners in technology in 2010. We could start with the perennial tech titans like Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison and the Google triumvirate of Sergey Brin, Larry Page and Eric Schmidt--all of whom had big years for different reasons. But in a year of record unemployment, the biggest winners may have been those IT pros who held onto their jobs. Their workload is often dramatically more burdensome, and the demand never ends. But that’s better than sitting on the unemployment line. And 2011 holds promise for greater user control, a return to hyper-innovation, and maybe even some bigger paychecks. The same goes for those CIOs who have finally lived up to the job descriptions their CEOs and boards want: a strategic, innovative manager who delivers value day in and day out. The era of the techie CIO is long gone, but the complete transformation of the CIO role has been underway for years. Those who came with the right tools—and the right state of mind—established very fruitful futures in 2010.