I’ve been channel-surfing during these hot, summer evenings, trying to find something other than re-runs to watch. I noticed that Sky (Sky Italia) is broadcasting a new IBM commercial which, in some ways, addresses the things we’ve been working on for years. I was not unhappy about this because it is always a good thing when a market leader addresses topics which, just a few years back, were not well-known and makes them public for all to see.
The truth is, that for most people, “the management of non-structured data” is a behind-the-scenes activity of the “IT show”. But for those of us who work with these things, the fact that these messages are now being broadcasted helps us give our potential clients a recognizable context.
Clearly, one of the implicit goals of the commercial is to try and convince the public that only a giant like IBM can efficiently and effectively handle great quantities of information (of course, I do not think this is in any way true, so to each his own opinion :-). What is important, though, is the value attributed to the problem of data management (and consequently, the technology for solving this problem). Therefore, I truly hope that these kinds of commercials will also be broadcasted on other networks and not just on Sky (then, maybe for once, I won’t complain about the constant commercial interruptions :-).
