In This Depression, Everyone Has An Opinion

Reading through the new entries at ZDNet, I find it especially instructive that there are two distinct opinions about what the IT industry should do at this time of low morale and similar funding.

Larry Dignan believes that the time is right for putting upgrades in place, with all the  hardware and software that it entails. Though his plan is workable, and he posits acceptable reasons for doing it, I remain skeptical of his reason for the article. My inner grump tells me that the reasons are more geared to keeping the upgrade cycle, and by necessity his job, going at full steam.

His colleague, Paul Murphy, with less to push, since he is not a full time employee of Ziff Davis, gives the reader a look at the possibility of changing completely, and forsaking the 2-3 year upgrade cycle that Microsoft and Intel would have us remain on.

Mr. Murphy gives solid reasons for going to Sun SPARC servers, and Sun Ray thin clients. This makes so much sense for many businesses. With these changes, worries about security are made almost nil. Disgruntled employees, either taking information, or trying to destroy it, will be rendered, for the most part, impotent. To top that off, the energy savings would be great, saving on electricity and air conditioning each day. The IT staff could be focussed on the server, with few problems ever occurring on the thin clients.

Although Mr. Dignan, Mr. Ballmer, and Mr. Otellini would be adverse to this route, it makes a lot of sense in today’s climate.

-

In times of rapid change, experience could be your worst enemy.Jean Paul Getty