The Season to Move On

To everything there is a season. For the season of the past decade that thing for me has been the IT industry analyst business. I came in near the height of the dot-com boom and, in the years since, have seen many hot technologies and companies prosper, perish, or maybe both.

The experience has been great and I want to wholeheartedly thank Jonathan, Judi, and the rest of the crew I've worked with at Illuminata, my fellow analysts at other firms, and of course our clients over the years. I learned a lot, had a ball, met many people who I count as friends, assisted companies large and small, and have no regrets about having spent the majority of the last ten years at Illuminata.

All that said, and sincerely meant, the season is changing. I echo many of Andi Mann's sentiments upon leaving Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) to join CA. We're in a period of enormous change in IT. That always seems to be the case but we're seeing some particularly fundamental shifts in the way that applications are delivered and infrastructures are operated. Vendors are re-aligning in response. There are new horsemen.

I wanted to be involved in those changes in a more hands-on way than was possible as an analyst, a job that is inherently a bit academic and outside-looking-in. (Indeed that somewhat detached perspective is one of the values that industry analysts bring to those in the trenches.) It's been a great ride but I'm looking forward to being back on the vendor side of things as I was during my earlier career at Data General. There were many things I liked about being an industry analyst, but I did miss working with development teams and being directly involved with bringing products to market.

To cut to the chase, Red Hat has offered me the position of Senior Cloud Strategy Marketing and Evangelism Manager out of the Westford MA office and I have accepted. I'll be helping to develop and implement Red Hat's cloud business and marketing strategy. It's a very exciting opportunity at a great company that puts me right in the thick of the changes I mentioned above.

I'll be taking a few weeks off and will go largely off the Net during that time. However, once I plug back in, I plan to remain very involved with many of the communities in which I participate. I will remain on twitter (@ghaff). I will continue to write my personal blog (and likely other blogs as well although this is among the details that need ironing out). I expect to spend lots of time out and about. I look forward to continuing to work and talk with many of you, albeit from a different perspective and in a different role.

I’d like to close by again thanking the many clients who I have had the honor of working for and with over the years. Illuminata and I appreciated the purchase orders, sure. But you’ve also helped me learn and provided intellectual stimulation along with many good times. Illuminata remains at your service and, although I will no longer be an analyst, I look forward to our paths crossing in the future as well.