[Am-info] How ironic!

[John Poltorak]

Using:-

http://www.watchingmicrosoftlikeahawk.com

as an index, it's really intersting to see how certain stories coming out 
become immediately redundant by other stories released at almost the same 
time. An interesting example of this is the story here:-

http://www.epaynews.com/index.cgi?survey=&ref=browse&f=view&id=1019559074622215212&block=

which goes on about banks begining to trust Microsoft and citing Bank One 
and Citibank as early adopters of Microsoft's new .NET product.

There's a nice quote from a Gartner analyst, Avivah Litan,
who says institutions like Bank One and Citigroup are "definitely setting 
a new trend" in recent deals. Just this week, Bank One and Microsoft launched
a bank-branded aggregation product as the first result of their USD 
30 million "unorthodox pact" of December 2001. Last month, Citigroup said its
credit card division will use two applications from Microsoft's .NET suite. 
As a result, Litan says, "bankers have a right to be cautious about  
Microsoft", but these banks show "the best of both worlds" can be leveraged.

In Litan's view, "what Bank One and Citibank are showing is that if you
work with [Microsoft] cautiously, ... you leverage their advanced  
technology and Web services, and you maintain a wall around your 
financial data".


Just a few lines down from the reference above is this one:-

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/23/24976.html

which mentions the postponement of .NET although I can't find an actual 
reference to this postponement. This article quotes Microsoft as blaming 
'industry hype' for overselling web services.

How ironic! - This from the company who invented industry hype.


Wonder how the customers and stockholders of Bank One and Citibank will 
view their banks investment in an over hyped product in the first place.

Maybe I should email Bank One and Citibank to ask how I can enroll for 
their .NET offerings, citing the article in epaynews which alerted me to 
their great new services.


Incidentally, I saw some adverts recently in the UK for adverts from .NET 
which seemed like some sort of campaign launch. Wonder when the rug was 
actually pulled....


-- 
John