CIO — I
don't know how I missed this, but at the Gartner IT Symposium in October,
Darryl Plummer (Chief of Gartner Cloud Research) apparently stated that
enterprises should deploy applications in a public cloud provider as a default,
and only deploy them in a private cloud if the public alternative is not
appropriate.
I became aware of
Plummer's recommendation, which caused quite a stir in the blog world when he
first announced it, via Twitter earlier this week.
Naturally, much of the furor over Plummmer's pronouncement
was a reaction to the quick summary: Gartner prefers public cloud. Wow. That's
a big deal, right? Gartner is probably telling all of its clients that they
should trim their private cloud plans and instead focus on public cloud service
providers. And, in response, all of its clients are scrapping their private
cloud initiatives and planning a big move to public providers, right?
Actually, that's quite unlikely, for some very sensible
reasons.
First, people misunderstand
the nature of analyst firms. They assume that these firms are corporate in
nature and monolithic in their positions. In fact, a better way to look at
analyst firms is that they are much like professional firms (e.g., law firms,
consulting partnerships, etc.). Such firms are comprised of relatively
independent individuals, each with his or her own opinion.
For example, one can
present the same issue to two attorneys within the same law firm and get two
different recommendations about what to do (I speak here from personal
experience). Likewise two analysts from the same firm will hold different
opinions about the right approach to a specific technology issue.
Consequently, even if
one or more (or most) analysts at a firm hold one opinion, there are probably
others who hold a different opinion. At the very least, when presented with a
specific issue, analysts will likely proffer different recommendations, based
on their interpretation of the issue. Of course, it's important to keep in mind
that every situation is specific and different. If blanket advice were
sufficient, there would be no need for analyst firms. Let me be clear, I'm
discussing this phenomenon in general—not picking on Gartner specifically. As I
said last
week, I am not one to gainsay Gartner.
Second, as a complement to the fact that opinion at analyst
firms differs, clients tend to take their recommendations selectively.
Companies tend to have their goals and they seek support and affirmation for
them, searching until they find third-party advice that can be cited as
impartial evidence for pursuing the direction that they have already decided
upon. This is crudely referred to as "shopping for an opinion."
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