If you’re attending the NetWorld+Interop conference on Wednesday, May 4, please join me at the special keynote presentation I’m hosting called “Survivor: Las Vegas.” I’d love to see you there.
Fear is an emotion indispensable for survival.Hannah Arendt
Dear Vorticians,
I have some shocking news for you.
Were you aware that two out of every five workdays are wasted because of pointless meetings, unclear objectives, procrastination and poor communications among team members? That’s the finding of a Microsoft-commissioned survey of nearly 40,000 workers in 200 countries. (Amazingly, these workers reported that their software makes them more productive. Go figure.)
What’s shocking about this is that I had no idea the other three days were so productive at other companies. In my case, four out of five days are lost to those ills – with two chewed up by my own procrastination alone (three during fantasy football season).
But I won’t waste any more time – yours or mine. Rather, let me quickly extend to you two personal invitations.
First, if you’re attending the NetWorld+Interop conference on Wednesday, May 4, please join me at the special keynote presentation I’m hosting called “Survivor: Las Vegas.” I’d love to see you there.
This session – modeled on one of the most enjoyable discussions at VORTEX 2004 – will focus on the winners and losers in enterprise IT for the next generation. My five panelists – all columnists and test experts for Network World – will share their candid thoughts on which companies will thrive in the months and years to come and which will be voted off the enterprise island by buyers. Thus, the Survivor theme.
At VORTEX, I asked three of the most respected analysts in the business to put a stake in the ground and rate the chances for our eight featured tech companies – IBM, Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, Cisco, EMC, HP and Sun – in the evolving enterprise market. As I reported to you after that event, IBM and Microsoft won immunity challenges, while Sun was voted off. The view on the rest of the players was pretty mixed. Each was seen as struggling with challenges of either vision or execution.
At Interop, I’ll be querying the panelists on current leaders in two broad areas: compute/storage/network infrastructure and applications. I’ll press them to identify whose chances are good and who won’t fare so well as we move to a more dynamic, virtualized infrastructure and a world with Web-services-based applications.
So, here comes my second invitation. I want you to help me prep by telling me who you think will be the winners and losers.
In infrastructure, consider companies like Dell, HP, Sun, EMC, Cisco, IBM and others. In the software world, weigh the prospects for Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, BEA, IBM and other current power holders. Share your ideas and your rationale by writing to me at mailto:jgallant@vortex.net.
I’ll weave your input into the mix and make sure the voice of the Vortician is heard.
Also, I must confess to misleading you a bit. Here’s a third invitation. Last week, I outlined my plans to move VORTEX Digest to a blog format and I took that opportunity to ask for you thoughts on what you’d like to see more coverage on, and less. I’ve heard from many of you, but I welcome even more input. To spill your guts, send me a note at mailto:jgallant@vortex.net.
