consumer grade technology

Over the past few years we’ve placed an unhealthy emphasis on deploying enterprise grade technologies. Although there is no standard definition of what this actually means, it usually refers to technology that is suited to the needs of a large organization versus being used by individuals or consumers (consumer grade technology). Ideally this means it’s more robust, more secure, more flexible, and more geared for IT professionals to manage and deploy. But really what this ends up meaning inside of large organizations is clunky, outdated software. I’ve seen many of these technologies, and I’m always amazed that people actually use them.