More love lost for Gartner

As a follow-up to my post on analyst integrity, here is a rather visceral rant against Gartner from David Amsler, founder and CIO at ForeGround Security, an infosecurity consulting and services firm. Amsler’s post is a somewhat cheeky response to Larry Chaffin’s evisceration of Gartner at Cisco Subnet posted back in August.

Amsler’s main argument is that Gartner is an arrogant organization that brings little value to the IT industry.  Well, his words are actually, “they truly don’t provide any real value to our industry.”  For proof of arrogance, he points to this privacy debate which broke out on Burton Group analyst Bob Blakeley’s blog. He also deconstructs Gartner’s ballyhooed Magic Quadrants, calling Gartner’s method for constructing them “fishy.”

I’ve never had a problem with Gartner, myself. I have had run-ins with vendors who were unhappy with Gartner (and my coverage of Gartner’s research).  I find that most Gartner analysts — at least those who return my calls — are as knowledgeable as any other subject matter experts I talk to on a daily basis.

Since I’m a member of the press, people aren’t always candid with me about their views on subjects like this. Or their candor is issued to me under the blanket cover of off-the-record comments, which means I can’t share them with anyone.  In any case, I remain curious about this whole issue and I hope to hear from readers who have an opinion (whether on or off the record).