You have to hand it to VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger for his efforts to try and inject a bit of excitement into his address at VMworld 2014 in Barcelona on 14 October. He urged delegates to “go bravely”. But before those of us paid to get carried away could get too carried away imagining CIOs and IT managers with blue dye on their faces shouting “it’s all about virtualisation” in a terrible Scots accent before being hung, drawn and quartered by the company shareholders, he brought us all back down to earth by putting their bravery into context.
So while he wanted people to go bravely, he was quick to add being brave did not mean risk taking or making a knee jerk response. Which obviously makes sense to someone who has invested in VMware products and is considering expanding virtualisation beyond the server to the desktop, storage and the network, and is very unlikely to go charging madly into any of those areas.
So there’s a limit on just how brave those people should be and, thankfully, that limit is pretty much the same as the limit they put on bravery themselves. Gelsinger was also happy for VMware to assume responsibility for helping people to be brave (within the limits previously set out), informing them that “we’ve got your back as we enable you to be bold”.
Warlike
At the end of the presentation, Gelsinger returned to the theme of bravery, telling delegates that they were “enabling a brave new world” and calling on them again to “go bravely”. I’m not sure just how bravely they went when they left the arena promptly to go to one of the various seminars, breakout sessions or meetings they had previously arranged. Did they walk into any of those events feeling slightly taller, stronger, braver? Did they have an added swagger or strut in their gait as they entered a room, brimming with the courage that only an IT worker, manager or CIO using VMware products can feel?
All joking aside, there is an interesting point in terms of whether anyone adopting any type of IT is exhibiting bravery. Many vendors would probably say No, if only to try and reassure nervous customers that there’s really no danger or risk in buying and using their products. But there’s obviously a level of bravery or risk involved, especially if a company is at the leading edge in terms of technology adoption (or at least led to believe so by its IT suppliers). Things can go wrong. In fact, a lot of the IT landscape illustrates all too clearly the risks and dangers involved in adopting IT. That’s why there are so many products and services being marketed and sold in areas like security, back-up and disaster recovery.
So, yes, it does take a measure of courage to use IT. Not as much, perhaps, as making a parachute jump or wearing a Celtic top into the Rangers end at Ibrox, but it can still get quite hairy. Years ago, there was a TV series called Hill Street Blues and the sergeant of the precinct always ended his daily briefing with the same words. Those words could serve as useful advice for any IT suppliers and customers who might be a little anxious about the notion of going bravely anywhere. In the immortal words of Sergeant Phil Esterhaus from Hill Street Blues: “Hey, let’s be careful out there.”
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