FUD this

So, my month so far consists of a reseller of a reseller losing our licensing. Super. Follow that up with some gaping vulnerabilities that push our update schedule and force unpaid overtime (the life of being salaried). To begin with, these particular licenses are a lot for a lot of things we don't use. And, to pour salt in the wound, it's pretty obvious they are scraping our data for their own benefit. And to end with, the vulnerability is so severe, it makes me wonder why we pay for it at all.

It got me thinking, why in the world is it harder these days? Especially for SMBs (Small, Medium Business). Why in the world are they being held hostage by rent seekers? Some of it is obvious, middlemen for middlemen, and it's only a matter of time before we get more layers to navigate. It should be much, much easier. And I'm out to prove that it can be. At the regular day job, we need to clear all kinds of regulatory hurdles for this to work. Ultimately though, those hurdles will be cleared. In the meantime, why not make it easier for SMBs to level the playing field, own their own infrastructure, and move it anywhere they want? On prem, why not? In a virtual private cloud, sure thing. All of these things are possible today. And I think I'm finally frustrated and fed up enough to prove it.

Let's be clear, this isn't going to be tinkering. This is full blown enterprise capability at the fraction of the cost of the "big boys". Secure, robust, capable, portable. And at the same time, giving back to the community. All of these things are available outside of those FUD-spewing spaces. Sure, good old FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) has to be overcome. But the FUD of those monocultures and the certainty of a catastrophic event happening there is going to make it a lot easier. Making it a lot cheaper is also going to make it a lot easier.