The end of Redshift (as a marketing term)
Rich Zippel (of the CTO organization, the VP responsible for Project
Caroline) sent me a note last week saying he'd been told not the use
the term "Redshift" in his external presentations anymore. The reason
given was an "Anil declaration" (Anil Gadre - EVP of Marketing). He was quite rightly concerned about this because "customers have really gotten excited about the way the issues are presented and it clarifies some of the thorniest issues in IT". I completely agree.
So what's the story? Heather Bender, HR Director supporting Anil, filled me in on the scoop. In short, Anil was concerned about the way the message was being portrayed with Blueshift companies as the "have nots" who don't value technology. In reality, nearly every company has both "red" and "blue" areas of the business, but this frequently gets lost in the translation. Thus Anil's request to use the term internally to help explain strategy, but not externally.
Has the term been misused? Without question. Is there a lack of depth of understanding that makes its use too selective? Yes. Has
it been appropriated for things that are completely useless ("Redshifting
HR"!?!)? DEFINITELY. Is Marketing being too conservative in worrying
about how companies will react? I think so.
Sun being what it is, Anil's request has been largely ignored and I'm told that even Anil has moved on to other things. Anil is quite rightly asking people to consider the implications for the audience being addressed and to use good judgement in using the term. I can't disagree with that.
So please folks - educate yourselves, use the term appropriately (that goes for you too Mr Macgowan), and help those blue guys understand where in their business their needs are really red.
I think Rich's time at HP (and elsewhere) shows through in that he'd actually consider NOT using the term just because someone asked him to. I'm introspective enough to recognize the irony - I'm amused at someone following directions at Sun. Which should tell all of you of both the joys (freedom of thought and expression) and the pains (rampant disregard for authority and process, inconsistencies everywhere) of working for Sun.
For more on Redshift, the blog post from Greg Papadoupolos (Sun's CTO) linked above is great. If you didn't see his presentation from the most recent Sun Analyst Conference, I'd recommend watching that as well. There's also a good snippet as it relates to Project Caroline on their project page. And if you happen to be an internal employee, Rich Zippel put together a great set of slides on Redshift which I can get to you - I think they're the most clear I've yet seen.
