CIA Plan #328 to remove Castro from power in Cuba has succeeded. This plan, also known as “wait until El Presidente gets old and retires,” now suggests that there will be vast geopolitical changes.
However, while Castro may be retiring, the communist regime he’s supported for nearly half a century isn’t going away, and whoever wins the elections in Cuba, the policies vis-à-vis the U.S. probably won’t change that much until and unless the U.S. foreign policy towards Cuba drastically changes after the next U.S. election.
Which is a shame, really, because when old hardware (I have no problem calling Castro “old hardware,”) is too troublesome to maintain than to replace, it’s usually a good time to re-evaluate the way that your company, or, in some cases, your tropical island nation, does business.
Now, whether Castro is retiring because of his natural health, or because the CIA slipped him a cigar with a really, really slow acting poison back in 1963, it doesn’t matter. The point is that we are so used to the way things are, we often don’t pause to consider what could be. We don’t understand the true cost of maintaining legacy hardware versus trying the new, and don’t give much thought to better alternatives if “things are working well enough.”
IT professionals have been thwarted many times by using legacy management tools that are outmoded, increasingly and annoyingly cumbersome to maintain and administer, or no longer deliver the value for which they were acquired. Beyond the obvious maintenance and license costs, there are also the opportunity costs related to speed, quality, scalability and efficiency. When you combine high maintenance costs with opportunity costs, the financial penalty for the status quo begins to add up.
Now, no one should advocate tossing out a product or technology just because it’s a little long in the tooth- in fact, long, huge, revolutionary solutions when small fixes are the most efficient solution can be a serious problem that takes time and energy away from IT. But, there is nothing wrong with taking time to assess the situation and ask whether we’re better served by what is or what could be.
No comments yet.