Conflicting think tank reports

Carrie Higbie — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 15:49:45 +0000

In a recent article, Gartner disputed Cisco’s claims that a single unified architecture saves money. At the same time a Forrester research article, commissioned by Cisco, backed up those claims. The two reports, picked up by several sources, have caused a flurry of comments. It strikes me as a bit odd that the majority of the comments are anonymous leaving the reader to wonder where loyalties lie, or even if those leaving comments are employed by Cisco, Forrester or Gartner.

Having run several large data centers myself, I can say that personally, I’m not a proponent of all eggs in one basket for a variety of reasons. But the reports themselves are vastly different in their findings. So the question is, how much stock to people really put into these reports?

I find these reports useful when predicting various findings about market trends, and they definitely provide food for thought. I would love to hear your comments on how, or if, you use these reports when making business decisions. Would these reports cause you to rethink your vendor strategies?

CIO’s owe it to their company to evaluate all options in light of business needs. Evaluations should include price, ongoing maintenance, value, support and a variety of other factors. Do you see your data center changing to a single manufacturer?

Data Center Ecosystem » Forrester

Conflicting think tank reports