The Unexpected Pace of Technology Adoption

Every week we talk about new technologies and new trends. But studies show us that new technology adoption tends to be very slow, especially at high levels. What’s behind the inability of new tech to displace legacy tech?  

SHOW: 607

CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotw

CHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"

SHOW SPONSORS:

• Datadog Monitoring: Modern Monitoring and Analytics
• Start monitoring your infrastructure, applications, logs and security in one place with a free 14 day Datadog trial. Listeners of The Cloudcast will also receive a free Datadog T-shirt.
• CloudZero - Cloud Cost Intelligence for Engineering Teams
• strongDM - Secure infrastructure access for the modern stack. 
• Manage access to any server, database, or Kubernetes instance in minutes. Fully auditable, replayable, secure, and drag-and-drop easy. Try it free for 14 days - www.strongdm.com/signup

SHOW NOTES:

• Why Enterprise software moves so slow, despite tech innovations (Matt Asay, TechRepublic)

IF IT AIN’T BROKE, DON’T FIX IT

For existing companies, most of the budget (typically 70-80%) is spent maintaining existing systems. New technologies are rarely used to replace existing technologies, but are usually additive. New teams and new processes are created, and those teams are often expensive (rare skills).

OUTSIDE OF CLOUD, THE COSTS OF CHANGE ARE DIFFICULT TO MANAGE

• The learning curve can be long, so companies often hire new talent. 
• For new technologies, talent is difficult to find, so often very expensive. 
• And new technology takes a while to mature, so the number of available use-cases is initially limited. 
• It’s not unusual for wide-spread adoption to take 3-5 years (if it succeeds).  
• Oftentimes, existing technologies will see a market disruption coming and add similar capabilities. 
• Many technology spaces have too many alternative options, so it can take a while before a “winner” emerges in the market. 

FEEDBACK?

• Email: show at the cloudcast dot net
• Twitter: @thecloudcastnet

FEEDBACK?

• Email: show @ the enterprise ai show dot com
• Bluesky: @TheEntAIShow.bsky.social
• Twitter/X: @TheEntAIShow
• Instagram: @TheEntAIShow