Blind adoption that creates ghosts and ghouls of failed IT solutions

As the Halloween season is approaching. Every grocery, convenience and big-box store has well-stocked Halloween aisles loaded with costumes, pumpkin and witch decorations and, of course, mounds of candy, it is time to think about what is scary in the world of IT.

I suspect that other ZDnet colleagues will write about specific devices, software and the like. I want to lightly examine what is really scary - the blind adoption of every new technology.

Nearly every piece of technology can be successfully used somewhere, sometime for some purpose. Very few can be used everywhere, always, for everyone. What scares me the most in the IT market is business decision-makers making a selection of a complex piece of technology based solely on what he/she read in a non-technical, business oriented journal or what was overheard at a business gathering. That technology, process or solution is then forced on an unsuspecting, hard working IT staff. Scary, huh?

Computer systems, software, networking and storage equipment really should be chosen based upon the organization's current and future needs, not upon the glossy photos in an advertisement. Furthermore, it would be wise to speak to those who actually use the product to determine the product's strengths, weaknesses, where it fits and where it doesn't fit in an IT environment before signing a purchase order for the product.

I imagine that if we took a stroll through organizations' datacenters, we'd find lurking ghosts and ghouls of failed IT solutions. That's what's really scary.