Community Feedback

Inexperience To Blame
Interesting article, but it mostly confirmed my long-held suspicion concerning analysts' lack of hands-on experience and the tendency to succumb to hype ("Credibility Of Analysts," Feb. 6, 2006). This is especially noticeable when the subject is not a major moneymaker, such as open-source software used to be.

Alon Harpaz
Electrical Engineer, Danaher Motion

Vendor Influence
It's refreshing, and much too rare, to find an article on this subject. I've worked in IT for more than 25 years and have noticed an increasing number of research articles, white papers, and product/technology reports that are greatly influenced or funded by companies that profit from the report.

Doug Huddle
Charlotte, N.C.

Watch Small Firms
I worked for Giga Information Group and Aberdeen. In my experience, the biggest firms are good at maintaining the separation of sales and research that's necessary to ensure independence and unbiased research.

The real challenge is with smaller firms [where] analysts are responsible for the revenue that comes into their individual practices, and the bulk of that revenue is often from vendors. They have no qualms about publishing flattering research that's commissioned by the vendors. Unfortunately, many users don't have the experience to recognize the difference between the two types of "research," and it leaves the door open for confusion, obfuscation, and distortion.

Randy Salzman
Managing Director, Tek Elements, Foster City, Calif.

Stampede Replies
You imply that Stampede's positioning in the Visionary Quadrant of Gartner's Magic Quadrant for application-delivery products was the result of our being a past Gartner client and because of our plans to "re-up with Gartner." This isn't true and is an affront to Stampede, Gartner, and other technology companies. Our WebRider solution was positioned on its merits as an acceleration solution. While I did tell Larry Greenemeier that Stampede was a past Gartner client, that statement was incorrect.

We never discussed, nor did I imply, a quid pro quo for being a client. Why wasn't this discussed, and what led to your assertion that companies like Stampede are "desperate to get attention"?

A favorable positioning for any company by a third party is important. Stampede has spent a considerable amount of time briefing many analyst firms, and our experience shows that this positioning occurs because of the value a solution provides, not any "symbiotic relationship."

Keith Vozel
Director of Marketing, Stampede Technologies