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An article that regurgitates Gartner talking points is a tainted one to begin with. Gartner even famously said that Apple should quit the hardware business: ht

An article that regurgitates Gartner talking points is a tainted one to begin with. Gartner even famously said that Apple should quit the hardware business: https://www.zdnet.com/article/why-does-the-it-industry-continue-to-listen-to-gartner/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/why-does-the-it-industry-conti... https://www.horsesforsources.com/gartner_fail_automation-AI_080418 https://www.horsesforsources.com/gartner_fail_automation-AI_...

klausjensen 5y ago
Twice in my career I have been involved in evaluating enterprise products for a large corporation - and part of that process was looking at Gartner reports. The Gartner reports were complete and utter garbage, filled with factual errors. Looks like they were written by interns, regurgitating marketing material - completely removed from reality. Since then, whenever I see somebody mention a Gartner report, I immediately dismiss that part of the argument.
- bsenftner 5y ago
  Can confirm. Was a developer for 20 years, got an MBA 20 years ago and have been dismayed by the quality of Gartner reports. Worthless for anyone with experience, and dangerous when used to guide the non-technologist. (Yes, I've been developing for 40+ years.)
  - greedo 5y ago
    But mgmt LOVES Gartner reports. It helps them avoid/shift blame when a purchasing decision goes awry. The first question our VPs ask about a new technology is "Is this %VENDOR% in the Magic Quadrant?"
- TheRealDunkirk 5y ago
  I am convinced that Microsoft underwrote them to boost Windows and cast FUD at everything else in the 90's, and they've never recovered their disingenuous ways. What annoys me most are the market share reports, implying that Microsoft owns the entire computing world. They don't. For personal use, I'd say Apple has broken into the majority. I'd pay money out of my own pocket to see PC vs Mac sales numbers with corporate purchases removed, rather than the same report they've published every quarter for 20 years now.
- bachmeier 5y ago
  Gartner has a long history of putting out garbage. Some called them anti-Linux, but I was always in the camp that they were just writing crap for large quantities of money and the people paying wouldn't know the difference. This story from 1999 is surprisingly still up: http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9910/22/gartner.linux.idg/index.html http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9910/22/gartner.linux.idg/... > The second report ("1999 OS forecast: The Linux face-off") projects market share in server dollars for the next few years. This one even contains a pretty graphic. The Gartner Group finding is that Linux will fade from the scene following the release of the first service pack for Windows 2000. > The third report ("Red Hat's future: Boxed in") concludes that Red Hat will fail to overthrow Microsoft by 2004, and suggests that Red Hat needs to find a more viable business model.
  - marcosdumay 5y ago
    They write what their partners ask them to. If you get a report from them on how the pitfals of setting Oracle's Spatial, it's probably good. If you get a cost benefit comparison of Oracle and Postgres, it's certainly trash. (Who am I kidding? They still insist Postgres doesn't exist.) That said, none of the documents are worth the price you pay and the hassle of interacting with them.
Spooky23 5y ago
Gartner is fine if you understand what they are. Basically analysts mash up what vendors and customers tell them what they think. They have conferences with large enterprise customers and vendors sponsor those conferences. So there’s a element of indirect pay to play. Many companies use them to review contracts as well, so they know what kinds of deals are out there. If you expect to understand technology from Gartner reports, that is dumb. But if you want to understand the market and offerings for large commercial/gov enterprise customers, they are a great resource. If you are a startup, you should not pay any attention to Gartner unless you are selling in that space. In the case of this topic, the information that’s key to understand is that Gartner is getting feedback that their customers are adopting cloud services, but are seeking to optimize the spending, including with some of the smaller players in niche areas.
- marcosdumay 5y ago
  > But if you want to understand the market and offerings for large commercial/gov enterprise customers, they are a great resource. They are pretty shitty for that too. They only get anything passable if you are after the offerings of the specific companies that pay them for the publicity.

klausjensen 5y ago

Twice in my career I have been involved in evaluating enterprise products for a large corporation - and part of that process was looking at Gartner reports. The Gartner reports were complete and utter garbage, filled with factual errors. Looks like they were written by interns, regurgitating marketing material - completely removed from reality. Since then, whenever I see somebody mention a Gartner report, I immediately dismiss that part of the argument.

bsenftner 5y ago
Can confirm. Was a developer for 20 years, got an MBA 20 years ago and have been dismayed by the quality of Gartner reports. Worthless for anyone with experience, and dangerous when used to guide the non-technologist. (Yes, I've been developing for 40+ years.)
- greedo 5y ago
  But mgmt LOVES Gartner reports. It helps them avoid/shift blame when a purchasing decision goes awry. The first question our VPs ask about a new technology is "Is this %VENDOR% in the Magic Quadrant?"
TheRealDunkirk 5y ago
I am convinced that Microsoft underwrote them to boost Windows and cast FUD at everything else in the 90's, and they've never recovered their disingenuous ways. What annoys me most are the market share reports, implying that Microsoft owns the entire computing world. They don't. For personal use, I'd say Apple has broken into the majority. I'd pay money out of my own pocket to see PC vs Mac sales numbers with corporate purchases removed, rather than the same report they've published every quarter for 20 years now.
bachmeier 5y ago
Gartner has a long history of putting out garbage. Some called them anti-Linux, but I was always in the camp that they were just writing crap for large quantities of money and the people paying wouldn't know the difference. This story from 1999 is surprisingly still up: http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9910/22/gartner.linux.idg/index.html http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9910/22/gartner.linux.idg/... > The second report ("1999 OS forecast: The Linux face-off") projects market share in server dollars for the next few years. This one even contains a pretty graphic. The Gartner Group finding is that Linux will fade from the scene following the release of the first service pack for Windows 2000. > The third report ("Red Hat's future: Boxed in") concludes that Red Hat will fail to overthrow Microsoft by 2004, and suggests that Red Hat needs to find a more viable business model.
- marcosdumay 5y ago
  They write what their partners ask them to. If you get a report from them on how the pitfals of setting Oracle's Spatial, it's probably good. If you get a cost benefit comparison of Oracle and Postgres, it's certainly trash. (Who am I kidding? They still insist Postgres doesn't exist.) That said, none of the documents are worth the price you pay and the hassle of interacting with them.

Spooky23 5y ago

Gartner is fine if you understand what they are. Basically analysts mash up what vendors and customers tell them what they think. They have conferences with large enterprise customers and vendors sponsor those conferences. So there’s a element of indirect pay to play. Many companies use them to review contracts as well, so they know what kinds of deals are out there. If you expect to understand technology from Gartner reports, that is dumb. But if you want to understand the market and offerings for large commercial/gov enterprise customers, they are a great resource. If you are a startup, you should not pay any attention to Gartner unless you are selling in that space. In the case of this topic, the information that’s key to understand is that Gartner is getting feedback that their customers are adopting cloud services, but are seeking to optimize the spending, including with some of the smaller players in niche areas.

marcosdumay 5y ago
> But if you want to understand the market and offerings for large commercial/gov enterprise customers, they are a great resource. They are pretty shitty for that too. They only get anything passable if you are after the offerings of the specific companies that pay them for the publicity.