Was reading a portion of this article [http://platform-solutions.techweb.com/virtualization.jhtml]
on Virtualization and contemplating downloading the paper when if figured what’s the point. Most of the words were simply marketing pitch and sales hype on virtualization to basically try to convince me that virtualization will solve business problems and make the company more competitive. I in fact know it won’t but there are lots of papers and marketing material that would try to convince me otherwise.
For most IT pros, the line between what is really nifty products one want to try out and what really is needed to “get the job done” is pretty straight forward. But when marketing and sales hype sway the powers that be that hey this IT product will make us more competitive, lets get it when it’s just wasted $$ often happens. Case in point a company that wanted some consulting work on a new system. The CIO was hell bent on spending $50,000.00 on a HP 4 blade, Blade server when their current setup consisted of a MS Windows 2003 server, an SQL server and about 25 desktops. This whole system worked just fine but the CIO wanted the “latest and greatest”. Needless to say, he got what he wanted but I doubt the cost outweighed the benefits by $35,000.00. This was during a time when Blade Servers were really being pushed as businesses answer to multiple servers.
I saw this phenomenom with computer gamers back in the mid 90s through early 2000s with the “latest and greatest” craze. They had to have the “latest and greatest” as it would give them the edge in gaming against others.
I see this being applied to business as well.
Get the latest and greatest technology and the business will be a competative leader. For me, having the latest and greatest IT gear often doesn’t increase sales for a business, often doesn’t increase profits, might increase worker productivity but more often that not, not really.
This goes along with Deadly Ernests Flash advertising thread and all those pesky ads we see trying to sell us something. Everyone is trying to sell us something when we aren’t really looking to buy something.
