Airbnb, Uber: Let’s Put Tired Disruption Stories to Bed

It's getting painful. Attend a major IT vendor conference, and the host describes how Airbnb and Uber are disrupting the traditional hospitality and transportation markets.

After the big IT vendor delivers a big serving of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD), they typically describe how their technologies can either (A) help you become a disrupter or (B) avoid being disrupted.

Alas, I heard that very message -- again -- at a conference in Orlando. Alas, the Airbnb and Uber examples are getting extremely tired at face to face events, and in social media feeds.

Who Are 2017's Disrupters and Innovators?

Without pointing to a specific offender, I get the sense that many big IT vendors can't name major disrupters beyond the Airbnb and Uber examples. Nor can they point to specific examples within their own partner ecosystems, where partners helped customers to actually define or disrupt a market.

No doubt, big IT vendors remain important in the technology ecosystem. Their converged infrastructures, hybrid cloud and public cloud offerings provide important pieces in the larger IT services puzzle.

But sometimes I wonder: Have big IT vendors looked beyond their own partner events to attend:

Forget about the keynotes at those conferences. Instead, walk the halls and check out the side sessions -- where tomorrow's disrupters are emerging below the typical radar.

Not Exactly New

As you look at tomorrow's disrupters, consider this: Airbnb was founded in 2008 -- about a year after the original iPhone launched. Uber was launched in 2009. I wonder:

It's a safe bet many of the disrupters will be ISVs running on public clouds like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and perhaps IBM Cloud/SoftLayer. Time to shift the spotlight to those new disrupters -- if we all can find them.