- Virtualization : everyone has done it to the extent possible and nothing new to talk about by any vendor; be it storage or servers, or even desktop. This is a no-brainer, so stop !
- Unified Communication : we have been tying ourselves into knots telling everyone that beyond the IP phones, IM, Chat, Video-conferencing, tele-presence, web-conferencing, audio-conferencing, white-boarding, and combining all of this into one device (if such a device exists and can be deployed across WIFI, CDMA, GSM, WIMAX, 3G at one go), is there a big business benefit ?
- Security : yeah ! we all have UTM, at least in theory, and yes, we patch our servers, desktops, laptops, mobile phones and take backups everyday. So what's new ?
- Green Computing : it's fashionable to talk green; a speaker asks "Do you have green clothing ?". In the past every generation of computers doubled the computing power; in the future every generation will reduce power consumed by 50%. Green is not only about saving power in the data center and your end-computing devices.
- SaaS and Cloud : everyone has an opinion and with the exception of sales force automation, no new offerings worth talking about. Waiting for the cloud to form and the rain, the IT organization cannot be like the Indian farmer. IT has to continue delivering every day as business does not wait.
Every vendor who sponsors an event for CIOs believes that they can continue to offer the same old stale product presentations and numbers that do not make sense to most of us. I believe that if this were to continue, the participation in such events will continue to decline to a level where the opportunity will dry up for the vendors.
Are there other technologies you want to add to the list ?
Would you like to add: And stop treating us like IT managers or sysadmins?
ReplyDeleteIt makes sense because none of these techonlogies is contributing a direct businss benefit unlike SOA, ERP, online marketing, DW etc. All of these technologies are just support entity with more emphasis on being trendy and feeling good( excluding security which is very basic need).
ReplyDeleteAgree. But the problem is not with technologies but with the attitude, wherein they think they can do anything because they have paid money. I mean virtualization is still important, so is security. But do those people who speak to CIOs know what the CIOs want to know? It is just that whatever they have. Worse still, many send junior executives who do not even appreciate what a CIO may want to know
ReplyDeleteI will add one more item; ERP systems and successful deployments.
ReplyDeleteHi, I enjoyed this post and in general I do agree. But, I'd like to offer a different consideration - IT technologies and understanding of them vary greatly by geography.
ReplyDeleteWe operate in extremely diverse business and by extension IT environments. People's understanding and sophistication of these "mundane" topics aren't the same world-wide. I find interesting to hear shared stories or experiences in these sorts of conferences from peers any and everywhere, including the blogosphere with blogs like yours!
Cheers,
Hi, I enjoyed this post and in general I do agree. But, I'd like to offer a different consideration - IT technologies and understanding of them vary greatly by geography.
ReplyDeleteWe operate in extremely diverse business and by extension IT environments. People's understanding and sophistication of these "mundane" topics aren't the same world-wide. I find interesting to hear shared stories or experiences in these sorts of conferences from peers any and everywhere, including the blogosphere with blogs like yours!
Cheers,