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Virtual Realities
Simple can be great, but sometimes
the desire to keep things simple leads to
the risk of oversimplifying something that
shouldn’t be. That risk definitely exists in
the technology world, where customers so
often wish that every solution would come
in a shrink-wrapped box – prepackaged and
ready to simply plug and play. That expec-
tation may be appropriate for plugging in a
desk phone at a new employee’s desk. You
expect that phone to work and immediately
hear a ring tone. The difficulty comes when
customers want every IT solution to come
in a one-size-fits-all package. This is when
simplicity crosses over the border into over-
simplification, and nothing good happens to
customers or their channel partners in the
land of oversimplification.
Oversimplification is particularly se-
ductive to mid-market customers, which
are caught in the gap between the small
business market (that truly does have
plug-and-play solutions for so many IT
challenges) and the large enterprise mar-
ket (where deep pockets can simply throw
money at IT needs to get where they want
to go). Mid-sized companies look long-
ingly at their smaller cousins and much
bigger cousins and naturally wish their life
was that simple in terms of IT. It’s hard to
look at the consumer-style, plug-and-play
IT solutions that are available to small
businesses and not be a bit jealous if
you are a mid-sized company with much
more complex IT needs. And it’s also hard
to look at how large enterprises simplify
the heck out of complex IT projects by
spending seemingly limitless budgets on
outside vendors that carry the burden
managing their IT solutions.
No one can blame mid-sized com-
panies for wanting simplicity. They look
around and see everyone else eating
warm-to-the-touch bread with butter and
nibbling berries with cream, and they
want the same thing. I get it. But all too
By
Yulia
Duryea
Keep it (Not-So) Simple
S
imple can be great. Simple can be better than great,
actually. Fresh-baked bread plus butter equals simple
and beyond great. Fresh blackberries still warm from
the sun plus homemade whipped cream is simple
and greater than great. I’m first in line for that. Pinot noir plus
glass plus sunset … you get the picture.
Avoiding
SD-WAN
Oversimplifications
Channel
Vision
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July - August, 2017
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