Innovation is an interesting process. However care should be taken to not confuse true product innovation with vendor strategies designed to harvest more return out of already sunken investment dollars by increasing the productive life of an aging technology. Don’t get me wrong, product mid life kickers are legitimate but they tend to be band-aid that attempt to cover the unwelcome baggage associated with the shortcomings of the older, underlying technology.

Having been involved in product development for many years I have witnessed the myopic thought processes that guide solution development to meet today’s near term problems without giving appropriate consideration to enabling the flexibility necessary to meet the yet unrecognized challenges of tomorrow.