How Do You Keep Up with Enterprise-level Tech?

E1ven asks: "I'm curious how the Slashdot gang chooses to keep up with the performance of high-level equipment for servers, routers, loadbalancing, and the like? For PC-type specs it's easy, every guy and his dog has a review website, and magazines stuff themselves in every window. However, the higher-end equipment is far more difficult to find trustworthy analysis of. I'm curious how other people have solved this problem, and what resources they use to keep on top of the game?"

Comments

Well, lets see...

[Sevn]

Depending on the environment you are in, you aren't making significant purchases that often. When you are, it's usually because you've outgrown what you have and can't simply N+1 it anymore. Either that, or it's tied to a brand new product offering. So you do the dance:

1) What are my competitors using?
2) Do any of my current vendors have a solution, and it is worth it?
3) Who is number 1 at the technology I'm interested in, and why?
4) Am I going to need contractors for initial implementation, or is the talent for this technology in house?
5) What's training going to be like?

Then you do a whole lot of research and select vendors(s). You let them come out and do a presentation if that's appropriate. Nine times out of ten, you'll end up going with the proven solution that a lot of people are already using. It's easy to make a business case for a known quantity.

Unfortunately, that's not how it usually works out. Other things color the decision like:

1) This friend of mine still works at this company and I'd like to throw them a bone.
2) For political reasons, we like company A.
3) The upper management prefer product C because of the pretty colors, and because so-and-so heard it was great at some cocktail party.
4) We are going to use solution D and that's official from upper management. There is no discussion. They read about it in CIO Monthly.
5) I have stock in company E.

You get the picture.