Ken,

Well, I'll start the discussion with a couple of comments on our prediction ("Through 2011, enterprises will waste $100 billion buying the wrong networking technologies and services"), and we'll see where this goes.

Our "$100 billion telecom waste" prediction basically hits a common theme: Network architects continue to follow well-understood but totally outdated design principles. As network technology caught up to the demands of applications, "bigger and faster" was a good approach to building the next network. Today, that's not the case - we have to think differently if we're going to utilize new benefits of network and communication technologies. $100 billion is the wake-up call: The benefit is not saving money but rather using networking technology as an enabler to do new things for the organization.

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Also important to make clear is that this issue isn’t about whether companies should spend the money. We believe they should, but they should spend the money on technologies and services that improve the business or reduce the cost, not the next linear step to an already inefficient environment. Buy technologies that make more-efficient use of bandwidth - technologies that make you more productive not more infrastructure not at capacity.

I find it increasingly disturbing how many organizations in the public and private sector are wasting money on adopting new technologies while adding complexity into the workplace.

I support initiatives that concentrate on providing tangible business value and not for the sake of technology, but rather the orchestration of service and the simplification of processes.

Taking a functional approach should allow knowledge workers the ability to use existing tools used to gather the data, but IT and business executives should concentrate on how this information is provisioned according to standards of governance and compliance.

The days of rip and replace are gone as decision-makers need to concentrate on solutions that extend existing investments wherever possible.

$100 Billion in waste is more than the GNP of many countries.