Training Toolkit

The 10 best hype jobs of 2002

Tags:
Top Ten Hype,
Top Hype Jobs,
Hyperbole

Jon Oltsik CNet

Published: 03 Jan 2003 15:05 GMT

A big part of technology marketing is based upon pure hyperbole because the industry is selling science, and science happens to be a nebulous topic. So combine the vague nature of science with aggressive sales tactics, and what do you get? Hype. As 2002 comes to a close, here are my picks for the year's top 10 most overhyped technologies and marketing messages.

No. 10: Web services
This was a tough call for me. I truly believe Web services will improve application development and integration and has the potential to change the way companies use software. Even so, the technology still remains very immature. XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a good foundation for standards, but data definitions and business semantics remain a battleground. Web services also suffer from a lack of application-level security.

In spite of these technical limitations, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, IBM and others promote Web services as one of the "Seven Wonders of the World." Information technology managers aren't fooled. They may tinker with the technology for internal applications, but they understand that the glorious vision of Web services nirvana is nothing but hype.

No. 9 CRM
Customer relationship management will go down as one of the last of the "bloatware" application suites to be replaced by much more efficient -- and elegant -- software components. In theory, the CRM concept makes sense: Use customer data to understand behavior and implement applications that help provide better customer services. But you still need a couple of things to succeed: people and business processes. Now that's a novel concept!

Imagine what would happen if chief information officers first worked on fixing the business processes and training people, and then figured out what technology is needed to support this effort. Siebel Systems, SAP or Oracle wouldn't like this too much. I noticed that as 2002 progressed, CRM hyperbole and interest waned. Let's hope this trend continues.

No. 8: "Oracle 9i: Can't break it"
Claims that Oracle 9i is unbreakable sound a lot like the claims made about the unsinkable Titanic. In February, Oracle 9i ran into its own iceberg when British security researcher David Litchfield found numerous security holes, including common buffer overflows and even a flaw that gave hackers administrative access to the entire database. Oracle then released patches to fix the holes, a clear admission that Oracle 9i was not unbreakable.

Oracle's dedication to security is a good thing, but using security to hype its marketing messages is a really, really bad thing. It misleads customers and provides a challenge to hackers and script kiddies. No sane IT manager wants that.

No. 7: Security fear, uncertainty and doubt
In a capitalist society, threats to security (demand) lead to security products (supply). To gain attention, suppliers quote statistics with the sole purpose of scaring the pants off prospective buyers: "In 2001, more than 30 vulnerabilities were discovered each week." "Code Red infected 250,000 systems in less than 10 hours." "Insiders perpetrate approximately 50 percent to 75 percent of all security events," and so on. To say that hackers constitute a threat is as obvious as a bumper sticker that reads, "Mean people suck." Message to the security industry: Business and IT executives understand they have security problems and are willing to spend money to fix the problem. Quit the scare hype: We get it.

No. 6: 10Gb Ethernet
Early in 2002, boosters predicted this technology would take off once the 10Gb Ethernet standard got ratified. That took place in June, and hardly anyone noticed. Here's why: A typical 1-gigabit backbone runs at below 20 percent utilization. Meanwhile, the Internet protocol (IP) services that were supposed to drive the need for speed -- such as IP telephony, video and content networking -- remain dot-com vaporware. Aside from this, ILECs (incumbent local exchange carriers) are sitting on their SONET base. (SONET stands for synchronous optical network, a format that allows for the transmission of different formats on a single line.)

Meanwhile, the CLECs, DLECs and BLECs have disappeared faster than you can say LEC. Does this mean that we won't hear any more hype from the networking crowd? No way. They've already moved on to MPLS (multi-protocol label switching), wireless, and a host of similarly geeky subjects.

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