I moderate all comments on StorageMojo and it is one of my favorite jobs. Moderation has turned into an unlooked-for pleasure, as I get to see the many insightful comments before everyone else. This morning’s came from David Vellante, who was at IDC for years. (Is IDC having a problem retaining bright people? I have no hard numbers but it seems like I’m seeing a rising number of good people leaving.)
Wikibon link love
David’s comment on The consumerization of IT is interesting:
The costs of storing a minute of audio are about the same as dial tone today and folks like Amazon and X-Drive (and I would argue Google with Gmail) are ‘double-dipping’ today using thin-provisioning-like technologies and easy-to-understand monitoring, metering and ‘chargeback’ software to condition consumers that storage consumption can actually be transparent and utility-like.
IT shops and vendors alike had better understand this trend.
Frankly, I’m not sure I understand it either, yet it certainly is provocative. Want to know more?
David thoughtfully included this link to a Wikibon discussion. The technique they use is interesting:
Decision making usually requires decision makers to make certain assumptions about future events. For example, “the past is prologue” is a common technique for assessing the future. Sometimes this technique works great, such as when predicting whether or not the sun will rise in the morning or set at night. Sometimes it doesn’t, such as when predicting whether or not the winner of the Kentucky Derby will win the Preakness. . . .
Essentially, instead of discussing “What will happen,” Future Perfect Peer Incite research meetings will assume that an event has transpired at some moment in the future and “look back” to discuss, “What happened?”
Which leads to Wikibon, infinity and beyond
So what the heck is Wikibon? I’m pretty sure it is a work in process. Wikibon seems to be a platform for analysts and consultants to strut their stuff and, without any one person necessarily breaking a sweat, creating good content that will bring people who are looking for the kinds of answers that community members are happy to provide.
The StorageMojo take
The ground is shifting under the IT analyst industry. Whether the analyst is helping a CIO make better business decisions or churning out content-free lead-bait, individuals now have an opportunity to attract their own audience. As capital-goods IT evolves into consumer IT, the need for core infrastructure analysts shrinks, while the new applications broaden and mutate. The brand-name on the analyst’s card becomes less important than what the analyst demonstrates every day in the flat-earth niche they work.
Clients, vendors and consumers alike, now have the opportunity to assemble virtual analyst firms. Pick the people whose thinking inspires and/or infuriates and engage with them. Find out what they think about your problems. Use what you can and leave the rest. And when the market changes, find the people who seem to get that and do it again.
Wikibon also appears to be partnering with Storage Markets, the innovative storage market research group. It may soon come to pass that the web-based independents will surpass the Gartners and IDCs in range and depth. All at a lower price!
Comments welcome, of course. I probably won’t attend the meeting tomorrow as I am getting ready to leave for Seattle. If you do attend, feel free to report on it here on StorageMojo.
I first posted this on Jon Toigo’s DrunkenData to spread the word:
“For Stoney”
http://www.drunkendata.com/?p=1150
“Pay it Forward”, it’s everywhere!
“Consumerization of IT”, it’s everywhere!!!
How do you “Pay it Forward!” for the “Consumerization of IT”?
Wikibon
http://www.wikibon.org/index.php?title=Home
Since then I have lived on that site.
Go to the Wikibon home page.
Select any topic and enjoy the ride.
Or go to “Storage Research Domains” and pick any topic.
A couple of my “Pay it Forward” favorites are:
“Organizational imperatives for future perfect records management”
and:
“Recovery point objective / recovery time objective strategy”
Dave Vellante makes a fine point in:
“Google?s SLAs: Fine print gives false hope”
http://www.wikibon.org/index.php?title=Google%27s_SLAs:_Fine_print_gives_false_hope
“Pay it Forward”
“The ground is shifting under the IT analyst industry.” could be changed to read:
“The ground is shifting under the IT Information Storage industry.”
Information Storage today reminds me of the automobile industry just before the Japanese began to impact the market. Those glorious days of flat head V-8s, in-line 6 cylinders, long flowing, racy tail-fins and 6-9 miles to the gallon. A designers dream? GM told me they were giving me “What I asked for and wanted!”. I drove a Volkswagen bug (beetle) at that time and never looked back.
My happiest years were in Japanese cars. So driver/owner oriented!!!
I wish I could say the same about Storage products.
My memory of Storage products is all the “good ones” that disappeared into some black hole and the endless gamesmanship with the Storage “lawyers”. I wish I had video of every time I asked for something really useful to me and they fell down laughing.
Here is one of the influences driving the change:
“Why Applications Are Like Fish and Data is Like Wine”
http://redmonk.com/jgovernor/2007/04/05/why-applications-are-like-fish-and-data-is-like-wine/
Which leads directly to this:
“Data is the Intel Inside?”
http://www.accmanpro.com/2006/10/page/8/
but more importantly to “pace layering”:
“Learning, Doing, Selling: 2006 IA Summit Wrapup: Monday”
http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/learning_doing_selling_2006_ia_summit_wrapup_monday#donnamaurer
“IA Summit 2006: Main Conference details”
http://iasummit.org/2006/conferencedescrip.htm#164
“From Pace Layering to Resilience Theory: The Complex Implications of Tagging for Information Architecture”
http://iasummit.org/2006/files/164_Presentation_Desc.pdf
A PowerPoint Presentation of the paper above:
http://iasummit.org/2006/files/164_Presentation_Desc.ppt
Mashups and Tagging: Which Pace Layer are they in?
“Mashing my own personal Blogosphere”
http://chieftech.blogspot.com/2007/04/mashing-my-own-personal-blogosphere.html
Some great “Entity Relationship” maps from mashups, tagging and blogging:
“Exploring Enron”
http://www.accmanpro.com/2006/10/26/exploring-enron/
“Blogroll-graph”
http://www.metaportaldermedienpolemik.net/blog/Blog/2007-04-04/blogroll-graph
“Social Networks and Blogs to Save a Life”
http://rohitbhargava.typepad.com/weblog/2005/07/social_networks.html
I wish all Storage came with the ability to build “Entity Relationship” maps for the dual purposes of Information for the LOB (Line of Business) and for IT Portfolio Management and “Pay it Forward”. The ability to build a “Risk Relationship” entity map is critical to the “Consumerization of IT”.
There is still the ongoing discussion of whether these tools should be in the Storage box or outside. Think about the Pace Layering approach. The LOB has different Information needs than the IT Portfolio Management. Different layers, different information. Why not?
Dream the Impossible Dream! “Field of Dreams, Build it and they will come!”.