The vendors hype all sort of options. Consolidation, distributed, smaller is better, bigger is more efficient.
The real answer is to map the technology and optimize it to the present and future business and organizational needs. There is usually no one solution for all organizations and business needs, unless, of course, you are planning a future outsource.
It’s interesting that content repositories always follow vendor hype trends but not user/management issues. The real valuable articlewould be to study when consolidation is a good decision (and on what platform) versus when de-consolidation is the better choice.
The issue of consolidation versus status quo versus de-consolidation would be one that CIO’s and CFO’s could easily take to the CEO and the board when M&A activity is a possibility. Maybe consolidation should be in a preliminary plan before considering outsourcing, to reduce contract costs. That’s what we need to do, rather than hype one vendor’s solutions over another. Be in in the CEO’s office, planning ahead of time, not reacting to what happens in the business. The mark of a good CIO.