I get this question a lot: Why do you cover enterprise?
People always look puzzled when they ask me this question. It’s like they are trying to see deep into my soul. Who is this man who loves enterprise coverage? Is he just dull?
Ha! If you think I am dull, so be it. I’ll gladly keep covering the enterprise.
Here are five reasons why:
It’s so much fun to write about Larry Ellison. Ever see this video about what he says about the cloud? The best thing about covering Larry is that the guy is hilarious and absolutely full of it.
Apps don’t suck anymore. It’s awesome to see people get to use technology that they actually like. Enterprise giants have historically made software that is awful to use. “Spending every day making someone’s life easier is awesome,” writes Dan Shipper. “Especially when that someone actually wants to pay you for it.” Writing about those cool apps is always something I find of interest.
You can no longer separate work and your personal life. Our work and home lives are blending in ways that force us to rethink who we are. TechCrunch has chronicled the shift in how tech is changing the way we live. Now we get to show how this same tech wave is changing the way we work. It’s at that intersection of our personal and work lives that we see the most innovative technologies. iPhones, tablets – they all create beautiful experiences that we use as much in our homes as we do at work.
You can smell the blood in the air. It’s like watching a chess game unfold. Larry is no dummy. He’s making his moves. VMware just bought Nicera for $1.2 billion. Why buy the virtual networking technology company? Arguably to derail Cisco, Rackspace and all the others pining for an open cloud. Then there is Amazon Web Service (AWS) – the force from the Pacific Northwest that has built the most sophisticated cloud service in the world. So much so that a source told me recently that the Japanese consider AWS a national threat. I find that fascinating.
IT? What IT? Pretty soon there will only be services. IT will be in your car, your house or in a layer of data that you access through your app. Services will be the means for how all IT is delivered. What does that mean for the corporation? How will our children work in 20 years?
Veteran writer Joe Wilcox says covering the enterprise is like throwing rocks into Lake Erie. You can’t miss. There are few people covering it, which I hope will change. There is just so much to write about.