When I was a kid growing up in the 1960’s, the big question of the day was “Mary Ann or Ginger?” Being the fairly wholesome, innocent child that I was, my answer was always the same – Mary Ann. Ginger certainly had her appeal (which grew as I got older), but Mary Ann was the one you knew you could count on till death do us part. She was sweet, kindhearted, and in the eyes of a young boy inexperienced in the ways of the world, the safe choice. Ginger, on the other hand, had eye appeal and a slightly frightening allure, but would she stick around after the novelty wore off? In my case, definitely not.
Here in the world of communications, we are in the midst of a similarly heated discussion – specifically, premise or cloud. Like the Mary Ann vs. Ginger debate, it often comes down to the choice between tried and true and the allure of something new and exciting. We know exactly what we will get (and have been getting) with premise, but the case for cloud can be very enticing – albeit as frightening as Ginger was to that ten-year-old Andrew.
In my latest article for No Jitter, I take a deep look into the programming aspects of Avaya’s platform as a service offering, Zang. It’s like the security of Mary Ann blended with the sexiness of Ginger.
Tao, Zen, and Tomorrow 