Industry adoption vs. industry deployment, is there a difference?

Industry adoption and deployment may be one and the same depending on your viewpoint.

However they can also mean different things depending on what you do or your area of interest.

For example, when I hear the term industry adoption that means that the industry (press, media, bloggers, analysts, consultants, evangelists, vendors, vars, investors) are talking about something as being common place.

On the other hand, when I hear industry deployment that means what customers or organizations are actually acquiring, deploying and routinely using on a broader scale. Sure they can and do often mean one and the same. However industry adoption in terms of things being talked about (socialized) often occurs before broad deployment.

Recently I heard a so called industry insider say that a particular technology had reached broad industry adoption. I asked the person if they meant that everyone (or at least in their social circles or community) was talking about it, aware of it with some use, or that everyone had deployed the technology. The person looked puzzled and asked what I meant and why would I care about adoption vs. deployment, there were one and the same. So I explained that there is a difference, one drives the other and that they are related, a cause and effect. Funny how some things resonate with customers however not always with so called industry insiders.

Next time you hear someone tossing around buzzword bingo topics or themes in conjunction with the term industry adoption, ask them if that means people are talking about it, or that people are actually doing what is being discussed. Of course there will be people doing or deploying what is being discussed, those are the early adopters and deployers.

What does this have to do with anything?

Not much really other than to throw out some food for thought.

Perhaps if you are a customer to have some fun with the pundits, evangelist and industry insiders or when vendors and vars show up for a game of buzzword bingo. On the other hand, if you are a vendor or var, clarify with and where your customers are as well as how they evolving from adoption to deployment to demonstrate success.

Ok, nuf said for now.

Cheers Gs

Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press, 2011), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press, 2009), and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier, 2004)

twitter @storageio

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2011 StorageIO and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved