Archive for the ‘IT Market’ Category

(Prove me wrong or shut the heck up.)

As pondered by Tony Greenberg and Alex Veytsel

1. Everything that’s old will be new again. Last year brought us the return of 3D from the 1950s, cloud (a.k.a. the new and improved mainframe), thin client (the dumb terminals for said mainframe), and iPad, the new and improved tablet PC. This year will bring us another batch of rebranded, repackaged technology sold as revolutionary. Which is ok because none of us are ready for true innovation (see #10)

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Posted in CDN & Streaming, Content & Content Devices, Data Center & Colocation, IT Market | 2 Comments »

One of the hottest topics in the wake of the meltdown of the real estate market is the ethics of walking away from an underwater mortgage – which now accounts for 12% of all foreclosures according to Morgan Stanley.

Banks and realtors tend to opine that it’s a barbarian practice, only acceptable to those that are rich and ruthless, with Fannie Mae and Congress taking specific punitive steps based on whether a default was voluntary and bloggers calling for life-long branding of defaulters.

Consumer advocates and academics reply that a strategic default is not a moral decision, but simply repairs a long-standing asymmetry between personal social norms (“honor your financial obligations”) and business norms (“maximize returns”) that allows banks to play by a different set of rules and take advantage of their customers. (more…)

Posted in IT Market, Managed Services | No Comments »

Driving in Detroit’s Rut, is the Media Business Next?

By Tony Greenberg /Alex Veytsel

Media firms have been my clients for years. Most IT firms complain that media firms prey on IT services firms by offering to “reference them” for larger enterprise deals. WRONG. Media firms, much like adult entertainment firms, are the spaghetti slingers and early adopters of new tech. You have to love them for taking the arrows in their backs and mounting themselves on the fireplace altar as trophies.

Media firms are actually IT Heroes. While banks and automakers wax poetic about risk and return on investment, Disney, ABC, News Corp., Viacom, CBS, and Sony–all past or current clients–pave the yellow brick road. Hats off to you all for “boldly going where no man has gone before”. For now, let’s ponder what lessons we can learn from the carnage of auto and the future demise of IT. (more…)

Posted in Data Center & Colocation, IT Market, Managed Services, Uncategorized | No Comments »

“Money is the opposite of the weather. Nobody talks about it, but everybody does something about it.”

- Rebecca Johnson

In 1996, I recognized a problem in the way IT services were bought and sold. The sales process wasn’t set up to solve a customer’s problems. Instead, it was set up to close a deal. Unfortunately for IT buyers, there really weren’t any better alternatives.

And the process wasn’t much better for the sellers either. Vendors were burdened with trying to provide excess requirements for the least cost, regardless of market value or actual need. In the middle, a massive amount of cash was being lost as the two tried to come together. Where did that cash go? Mostly into sales and marketing, which is ultimately about bringing two sides together to do a deal?

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Posted in IT Market, RampRate News | 2 Comments »

Trust is a double-edged sword.  If you trust in the right things and the right people, you can accomplish much more than you ever could alone.  In falling for myths and liars, you fail not only yourself, but also all those who trusted you.  Today’s subject is how our misplaced trust eats away at the crown jewels of American industry – putting IT services on the same complacent path that greatly contributed to the last mainstay of the country’s wealth — auto manufacturing. (more…)

Posted in IT Market | No Comments »