Ban the word 'enterprise'

January 19, 2009

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One popular way to dismiss or select a product is by referring to the word ‘enterprise’. ‘No, we cannot use Ruby on Rails because it is not an enterprise platform’, an IT person might tell you. Or ‘our company needs an enterprise solution, so we will select the X suite from (big) company Y’. In the latter case, ‘enterprise solution’ is a synonym for ‘behemoth’. If you buy an enterprise solution, make sure that you are a big enough company to afford it. Neither the price up front or the implementation is going to be cheap. ‘Enterprise’ is one of those words that can mean anything. I would suggest that you ban the use of it. Whenever a person refer to a solution as an ‘enterprise solution’, ask him or her what it actually means. Don’t let them get away with it!


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Written by Vidar Kongsli who is a software professional living in Oslo, Norway. Works as a consultant, system architect and developer at Bredvid. You should follow him on Twitter