There was an old adage from the late 70's: No one gets fired for buying IBM. Basically they're saying that you're safe by choosing the industry standard solution. Even if that solution sucks, you chose something with "good support" which was a reasonable solution. I won't be the first to say that today that adage has changed to: No one gets fired for buying Microsoft. When Exchange or Source Safe looses your company's data, you selected the industry standard solution. I'd like to add a new meme:

No one gets promoted for buying Microsoft

While this aligns well with my evangelism, I think there is more truth to it than that. If you're choosing the same solution as everyone else, you've got more cover for your mistakes, but you also don't have any competitive advantage over your competitors. You're in the same boat that they are, unless you're doing something new and making it lower cost, more stable, or easier to support. Are you providing a competitive advantage or the same-old solution?


posted Apr 25, 2006 | permanent link