An idiot. OK, let me elaborate on this one for a while.
I love tools. Ask my wife and she’ll tell you that I’ll plan a new project just for a chance to buy a new tool (finishing it is another story). When I look at tools I see potential. These are devices that help me take my processes and resources, and change my environment for the (sometimes) better. The tools we have in IT are no different. There are hundreds, if not thousands, out there which are all designed to run through processes and work-flows and deliver specific results.
In my workbench I have a very loving fondness for one special tool. I simply call it my “rotary tool,” but in reality it’s a platform. I have a half dozen or so attachments to a base that allows me to accomplish a variety of tasks. In fact, an enjoyment of mine is perusing the very aisle at my local hardware store that has all the attachments in the hope there’s one I don’t own (but soon will). I can’t even begin to name how many home projects/fixes I have successfully accomplished, all because of this one item. The technologies in IT are much the same. We have tools, and then we have platforms. During the past few months I’ve had the privilege to work on a platform, and let me tell you, the boundaries are almost endless. With a platform, I feel like an IT superhero that can go out and handle all of our ITSM problems with only a few clicks of the mouse, and maybe a tap or two of the keyboard.
But now there’s another problem. If a fool with a tool is still a fool, what happens when that foolishness is multiplied by a hundred times? Now you know why my initial answer is “idiot.” Since a tool is limited, a fool really won’t get anywhere. On the other hand, a platform can expand on foolishness several times over. Why am I so worried about this that I’m dedicating a blog post to the subject? I’m really not that concerned since a fool with a platform probably wouldn’t know what to do with it anyway. I just happen to like the saying and wanted to work it into a brief post about the differences between tools and platforms. If you’re a vendor and reading this, please know my preference is for platforms. It’s not that I don’t like tools or think of them as useless, and in most cases we still need tools to accomplish our tasks in IT, but a platform can evolve with IT as it itself matures.
Or…I could be wrong and am just a fool with a platform.
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