The Contemplating IT Blog

In the world of IT, there is an interesting balance between innovation and risk. While innovation is what is usually talked about – it is the mitigation of risk that often drives the decision. That is why the IT leaders remain the leaders and the startups spend most of their time pushing boulders up a hill.

In the world of IT quantity is quality – the more product you have in the field within production environments – the less risk there is for the next guy. But if that is the case – then aren’t startups always at a disadvantage? Abso-friggen-lutely. Startups have to bring compelling technology to the table in order to even be considered. Startups shouldn’t even be allowed in the door unless that is true. Otherwise it’s a waste of everyone’s time (including their own). But assuming they have done this – then the next most important thing startups need to focus on is risk mitigation!

Luckily for the startups – there are end users that are “early” adopters. But I am still shocked at the number of startups that have terrible customer reference programs, awful case studies and very little focus on customer testimonials. And hardly anyone ever, ever, ever leverages their channel partners for testimonials.

In many cases, IT professionals are not implementing innovation – that is the unspoken reality – by adopting the leaders. However, they do so because it is the safe choice. And at the end of the day – when it comes to running the operations of your company – you will more often than not go with the proven choice.

Taking the “safe” choice isn’t an issue of politics but rather quality – real or perceived. One of the biggest challenges with IT infrastructure is there are infinite variables. Therefore the more a product is implemented – the more common variables it is exposed to – which results in a greater chance of success in your data center.

Does that mean that you shouldn’t implement solutions from startups? Yes and no. The focus should actually be on innovation that provides real value to your operations. Here is the litmus test – a startup has to really earn your business by providing something so compelling, unique and valuable that it becomes pretty much a no-brainer.

What about the risk? Do your homework and make the startup vendors do their part to mitigate the risk. Even if they have only 10 customers – make sure that you get to talk to as many of those customers as you can. And make sure they give you a case study on each of those customers. Another way you can reduce risk is to use the new product or technology for an application that isn’t mission-critical as the first step. Get a feel for it before you make it a part of your core applications and/or operations.