FUD

This weekend, I had a friend visiting from Brussels. As all visits need the right mix of business and pleasure, I had a perfect plan of actions prepared. And it included fishing. Salmon.

I happen to live nearby one of the best Salmon rivers in Norway. I guess they all use that same “We are one of the best” term, though, and unlike the Security industry, there are no IDG, Gartner or others to make us a chart showing how innovative our river is. Enough FUD!

Sunday afternoon, we went down to my secret location and lit a wood fire. We keep a small, open-air lodge down there, where we sleep and enjoy the Snaps when the fishing is done.

Everything is set for our counterattack on the Salmon coming up from the sea.

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We spent a few hours throwing our lovely bate and lures into the river, using our fishing rods. Altering spots, altering lures. No luck – no fish.

At some point, I decided to use earthworms from my garden. Threw it into the river, leaving it hanging. Waiting patiently. Willing the salmon to grab it by it’s big under bite.

Hours came and went.

Nothing.

We also started begging the local pike to show us some mercy. This particular brand of pike is well known by all freshwater fishers. They come in all flavors, and I am yet to see a lake or river without one. Their real name is Bottom Pike.

They tend to bite anything. Hold on to it. But they never seem to swim away. Just sitting sturdy and firm, holding on to your lure. Until your line snaps.

You never land a Bottom Pike. It resides in your waters, making you waste time, effort and money. After a while (can take years), you learn how to distinguish a bottom pike from the fish you try to catch.

And you may teach yourself to reduce the number of false positives. In local rivers and waters, you may also learn where you are more likely to only catch the bottom pike, and less likely to catch the real thing. Floods and other nature updates still makes this hard, so you need to plan ahead and stay informed about these changes. 

This is what we recognize as Vulnerability scanning.

***

After several lovely hours by the river, we gave in to darkness and hunger. We heated some food, and enjoyed a couple of snaps. And eventually we crawled into our sleeping bags, enjoying the late summer night with clear sky, haloed moon and the crisp air.

Strategies are discussed, new plans made and we go to sleep knowing next time! Next time we will catch on of those bastards swimming in our local area!

***

The following morning, we started throwing our lures at dusk. Coffee, earthworms, sun rise. Life is worth living and this time, the salmon will not be able to resist our honey pot!

A few hours down the line. No salmon caught. Not that much pikes either, mind you! Our intruder seems to have no interest what so ever in our servings. Or, we have no one trespassing.

After a full day of fishing, and only the Bottom pike remotely interested, we decided to call it a day. It surely had been a nice time, and we now know more about the river.

We decided that if you are serious about catching anything, you need to alter strategy. Using rods and throwing randomly gets you know where. No matter how nicely you present your lures, earthworms or other honey covered snacks, it is unlikely you will catch anything but stupid, extremely hungry or overly curious creatures. Except the now so familiar bottom pike, of course.

We came to the conclusion that if we are to be serious about catching fish, we need to research the area. We need to change our fishing method. Nets are much more efficient. Altering the streams, and the available way the salmon can go is even better.

We also need to monitor the water level, the number of salmons actually entering, and the previous catch. We must adjust for floods and overflows. Make sure to patch the fishing net – we do not want the salmon to leave the net, do we? And use our historical knowledge to predict the future outbursts of salmon.

Only by changing strategy can we expect to catch anything. Continuing using fishing rods and random throwing will continue to yield no results. And the results we get will only be random, and thus useless for future reference.

Unless of course you only care about the actual fishing – and not the catching of intruders in your own rivers?

What are your priorities?

Recently, there has been a raise of FUD in the blogosphere. In the beginning of the discussion of Dominic and Alan, I just laughed. I welcome any health discussion of technology.

But then they started to bring out the guns. Accusations and rocks (imaginary ones) flew, and soon thereafter more bloggers jumped in. When it all burned out, the outcome was as every time - they are both wrong, and they are both right. And they have areas of disagreement. Nothing new at all. 

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I used to work as a whore. A product whore. I went out there, lifted the rocks and preached the (current) truth. The truth of whatever vendor paid my bills. Never caring about what the client actually needed, or what would fit in the existing infrastructure. The all important matter was to sell sell sell.

And I admit, sometimes most of the sales information you got from the vendor where FUD. Even if the vendor did not give me FUD to feed the client, there where always enough information around to create the FUD myself. 

At some point I met myself in the door, and had to choose between actually helping the client, or helping the vendor to sell.

Needless to say, I did quit the selling. 

So when I read Dave Lewis ranting about vendor bullshit and FUD, I relate to it in more ways than one. And I am so happy it is not me sitting there with a HALO-playing techie. Knowing I have moved on, and actually am adding value to my clients - and not only as a nice word in the marketing materials.  

I do not believe we have seen the end to FUD, but I do believe that if we try to focus on true value, innovation and the needs of the clients, we can reduce the amount of FUD to only apply to non-serious players. 

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So Alan, Dominic, vendors out there -  technology changes, evolves and adopts all the time. It is not always easy to hang on to the changes, and follow all the new features and options and their impact. Especially when the competitor comes up with something different AND better.

To help the client choose the best tool, you do yourself a favor by focusing on the relevant issues and facts. Relevant for the client, that is.

When the FUD starts to surface, many clients do just like Dave. And some call me.

And I am on their side now.