Enterprises Should Not Pause Their Technology Spend

S. Schuchart

Summary Bullets:

• Layoffs and economic events are making enterprise buyers think about their technology spending.

• Its not time to cut off technology spending on core systems to help the business and to help IT.

It was announced that Disney has laid off its entire metaverse team of about 50 individuals as part of a much larger layoff strategy. Layoffs at tech companies, or companies that are heavily invested in tech such as Disney seem to be happening a great deal recently and it has induced some level of uncertainty regarding tech and the larger economy in general.

Meta Walks Away from NFTs – You Should Too

S. Schuchart

Summary Bullets:
• NFTs have had their moment in the sun.
• Meta and others are walking away from them.

Social media giant Meta (formerly Facebook) announced early in March that it was discontinuing support for NFTs across Facebook and Instagram. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are digital tokens verified by blockchain technology, in theory to verify ownership of a particular image, despite that image not being hosted on the blockchain itself. NFTs were the subject of a torrent of hype and some truly incredible investment by individuals and companies, with individual NFTs going for hundreds or millions of dollars or the equivalent cryptocurrency. Like many trends NFTs became fashionable, with celebrities not only buying them but outright endorsing them. As with any trend where the money flows freely, it got so big so quickly that a lot of businesses tried to jump on the bandwagon.

It’s Time to Leave Twitter

S. Schuchart

Summary Bullets:

• Twitter’s current erratic decision making represents environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks for corporations now and in the long term

• Corporations should vote with their feet and choose the right thing for their business over Twitter’s marketing potential

The latest news on Twitter is that in response to a poll he himself ran, Elon Musk will step down as CEO as soon as (and if) a new CEO can be found. Since the beginning of Musk’s ownership of Twitter there have been erratic communications and unexpected changes coming from the company. The lack of consistency and transparency in particular around content moderation makes the reputational risks of using Twitter unacceptable and should compel corporations to abandon the platform.

Planning Matters When Giants Fall

S. Schuchart

Summary Bullets:

• The most important companies of today may not be around tomorrow

• Planning for alternatives in technology purchasing/direction insulates from vendor instability

The recent travails of Twitter and its new owner have been the subject of considerable news reports and analysis. Twitter has been a fixture of social media for over a decade, and its fate is yet to be determined. The larger effect of Twitter’s current trials on the technology industry has been one of shock. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, AWS, Google, Apple, Microsoft, and other “big tech” stalwarts have a feeling of permanence, a sense that these companies are forever. No member of IT staff or technologist can really go a day without encountering at least one of these firms. Their storied market prominence, technological achievements, and reputations all add to the feeling that these companies will be around and important forever.

The End Shape of Things

S. Schuchart

Summary Bullets:

• Evolutionary predictions are relatively easy; revolutionary predictions for cataclysmic, market-changing events are nearly impossible to predict.

• Skepticism, value-focus, and clear identification of what is evolutionary, even when it’s dressed up as revolutionary, is key to effective technology decision-making.

Historically, humanity’s ability to see the end shape of things is spectacularly bad. Smart, monied people such as Thomas Watson, the storied CEO of IBM, in 1943 said there would be a world market for maybe five computers. The inventor of Ethernet, Robert Metcalfe, predicted that the internet itself would “supernova” and collapse in 1996. Those are egregious examples of being spectacularly wrong, but it makes sense to look at the perspective of those predictions in the light of the conditions and observations they could make at the time.

Fly by Wire

S. Schuchart

Summary Bullets:

• Wireless, especially 5G and WiFi6/6E, are so popular, the wired seems old-fashioned.

• Use the right technology for the application and don’t discount a wired connection.

We all swim in a world of radio frequencies delivering us music, television, data, the beloved voices of our friends and family, or the dreaded drone of telemarketers. Both 5G and WiFi 6E are the hot topic in enterprise wireless spaces, touted for everything from stadium connectivity to mass IoT. The sheer engineering of these technologies is awesome to behold, and the tricks radio-frequency engineers have learned over the years to coax more and more performance out of allocated spectrum is truly wonderous to behold. It’s reached the point where the very idea of using actual wiring – be it copper or optical fiber – seems quaintly old-fashioned outside of data center environments.

Quantum Error Correction Will Supercharge the Quantum Computing Market

S. Schuchart

Summary Bullets:

• Quantum error correction is a significant driver for quantum computing research and the unending quest for quantum supremacy

• The quantum computing market will explode if quantum error correction allows for markedly more stable qubits

As 2022 continues its exorable march towards 2023, the developments in the quantum computing market continue at a dizzying pace. Its particularly remarkable considering that quantum supremacy is still elusive. Quantum supremacy, also sometimes called quantum advantage, is when a quantum computer can solve problems faster than its classical computing counterparts. Without quantum supremacy, the commercial uses and long term prospects of quantum computing evaporate like water droplets in a hot skillet.

Executive Departure Adds More Uncertainty to Broadcom’s VMware Acquisition

S. Schuchart

Summary Bullets:

• Tom Krause is leaving Broadcom to become CEO of Citrix-Tibco, increasing tensions around the planned acquisition of VMware.
• Broadcom CEO Hock Tan is taking over the Broadcom Software division, but there may be a chance that VMware’s leadership team could run the division if the acquisition closes.

The latest chapter in the saga of Broadcom’s quest to buy VMware sees the architect and face of the deal, Broadcom Software President Tom Krause, leaving Broadcom to become CEO of Citrix-Tibco. For fans following along at home, Citrix was purchased by private equity firms Vista Equity Partners and Elliott Investment Management that plan to merge Citrix with Tibco. The merger of those two is much like the purchase of VMware by Broadcom – a move with very few synergies that leaves everyone scratching their heads and wondering why. It seems as if the thought process is that any software company can be merged with any other… because they are all software, right?

IBM’s Quantum Roadmap for 2025 Brings Practicality and Excitement

S. Schuchart

Summary Bullets:    

• IBM’s roadmap for quantum computing leans heavily into software/development as the interface to make solving problems on quantum computers as easy as it is on classical systems.
• IBM’s introduction of its modular quantum computing plan will allow, in the long term, parallelization of quantum computing, essentially creating larger quantum CPUs out of several smaller ones.

As it has been for the last several years, the quantum computing market is again boiling with a great deal of vim and vigor.  In May 2022, IBM made an announcement that it is expanding its roadmap for quantum computing, particularly at a large scale with a focus on realistic problems. IBM’s very near-term, previously disclosed roadmap includes the 433-qubit processor named IBM Osprey, which the company expects to make available later this year. In 2023, IBM intends to introduce IBM Condor, a quantum CPU that reaches 1,000+ cubits.

Employee Monitoring Has Unintended Consequences

S. Schuchart

Summary Bullets:

• Productivity monitoring software causes more unintentional harm than good.
• Companies that implement productivity monitoring software will suffer from more turnover and have a much more difficult time in hiring.

While often talked about separately, the Great Resignation and work from home (WFH) are inextricably linked.  Both are pandemic-born and have propagated a number of technological trends, including greater focus on security, collaboration, and productivity. But technology is not always the solution. In this case, the proliferation of monitoring software and the relative enthusiasm for it can and will backfire spectacularly.