As my column starts to move into its fourth year, it’s really humbling to have my readers reach out via social media or email with really good topics and current events. I love every minute of it and feel blessed and honored that anyone would take the time to flag me down on the street and compliment the Jewish Link of New Jersey and Bronx/Westchester/Connecticut on this column.
One of the challenges of being 45 years old and married 20 years is that IT is moving and changing at a more rapid pace than it did 15 years ago. I give this example: Whenever a client goes to a local pizzeria in town, he always asks the person behind the counter, “Is this one fresh?” Please. How insulting to ask, as if the owner would allow yesterday’s pizzas to be sold. I have been to every pizza place in town and all of them serve fresh, hot pizza daily. We are blessed. Nevertheless, the customer’s thinking is, “I am paying so I want the freshest, hottest, tastiest pizza you’ve got.”
Here’s what no one has ever said: “I have this pizza, it’s been around for five days but I really am OK with it. Tastes a little old but it works for me.”
Now we turn to IT. Clients with critical businesses that can’t be down for one day without suffering losses, downtime to employees or clients’ services being disrupted, when the IT MSPs (managed service providers) come in to quote a server or network solution that will last three years, every time—without fail—the response is: “Three years? That’s it? Well, that’s crazy, I can’t spend all this money for three years. My current server lasted five years and still works (but super slow).”
OK, let’s go back to my pizza analogy. You want IT MSPs to give you the older systems that will run slower, break down and not be state-of-the-art? That’s what you are paying IT people for? Exactly. No one wants to hear that. Warranties are for the client’s sake, not the IT MSP’s. (Actually, Dell offers gold support. Dell can come that day and swap a motherboard that day or the next for $100 a year! Think about that: $100 is a nice dinner out for four, or a month of cable with all the channels.) A little secret: Warranties hurt IT people, as the maintenance is lower. Good MSPs will always put the client first at the network before looking for ways to make fees on older technology to rack up the monthly.
Though my column is about the landscape, none of the MSPs in town that I know, such as Harold Nussbaum from Network Masters, Michael Lowey, Ben Reiner from Ma’ayanot, Yoni Greenfield, Baruch Feigin from Hy-Tech and Moshe Azizollahoff from BPY, are related to Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg or anyone at the Google CEO level!
The software today needs to be more robust to meet needs or cloud computing, streaming and VPNs. Just three to four years ago the chosen flavor of server operating systems was Windows Server 2008. Server 2012 R2 Standard was late to adapt and MSPs couldn’t convince clients to pay for the 2012 OS price on the server. Now we have software vendors that will not support clients who pay $100k a year unless they upgrade their servers. But we only bought these servers three years ago! (True story. We had this happen to The Garb Consulting Group just last week.)
The point is hardware needs to grow faster to meet the software needs. IT moves at a much faster pace than it used to only 15 years ago. What was state-of-the-art today outdates yesterday. If you doubt me, how come almost every year, most of us (excluding the writer because I hate getting new phones), purchases the newest and greatest Droid or iPhone? That’s how 11-year-olds are walking around with almost new phones. One parent upgrades and gives their old one to their younger kid as a hand-me-down. Well, are you saying the Droid/iPhone you had last year is totally obsolete? No, though the carriers might tell you the new phone makes your old phone obsolete, because it can’t do Apple Pay or Samsung Pay! Oh, the world is stopping! I can’t take the one minute to take my credit card out!
Now, to address the Nokia saga. If one will take the time and read what happened, the CEO with tears in his eyes, with his upper management team doing the same, admitted they failed. Nokia was the only phone I remember—people called them Nokias. Nokia ended up selling to Microsoft for pretty much nothing. How did this happen, you ask? Nokia never thought Droid was a Google company? Isn’t Google a search engine? How are they going to beat Nokia?
Well, Nokia didn’t roll with the times. It didn’t upgrade. It didn’t market and it watched as Droid took them down. Nokia’s failure I can’t blame on Nokia as I can on the way IT is perceived. If a client or a consumer would be OK with older technology and older software, all of us would still be using Microsoft Word and Outlook.
To summarize: I remember in the ‘70s that eight-track tapes were always strewn on the floor of my mother’s car. Cassette tapes took another 10 years to come out. Then compact disks, DVDs etc. Just look back in the year 2000 at technology and every home’s needs, and look at today’s needs.
If you want to test yourself: do you own in your home today all of these devices? Your answer is probably yes. Don’t worry, I know it is.—PC/ Mac with Wi-Fi—VoIP service Vonage or VOIP carrier. (Cablevision and Verizon count)—Wi-Fi Router—Smart TV—BlueRay player—Casting Device (Chrome, Amazon, Firestick)—Membership to Netflix, Amazon Prime or Hulu or all three.
Nokia, thanks for all the good times. My first phone was a Nokia. It worked great and I never needed to charge the battery three times a day.
By Shneur Garb
Shneur Garb is the founder and CEO of The Garb Consulting I.T. Group in Teaneck, NJ. Shneur also gives seminars to educational institutions and business professionals on various IT subjects.
