The Fear Factor
How Enterprise IT Buys Big, Plays It Safe, and Locks Itself in (No, Not the Show With Joe Rogan)
Enterprise IT is not about innovation, efficiency, or even technology. It’s about fear, blame, and making sure middle managers can keep their jobs without actually managing anything. The safest way to do that? Buy expensive commercial products, sign million-dollar support contracts, and lock the company into proprietary solutions that will haunt them for decades.
Fear as a Business Model
The bigger the company, the more terrified it is of making the "wrong" IT decision. So, instead of empowering teams to build expertise and take control of their technology, they do the safest thing: throw money at a well-known vendor.
Open source? Too risky. "What if there’s no support?" (As if paid support has ever magically fixed a production outage at 2 AM.)
In-house expertise? Too dangerous. "What if they leave?" (Better to rely on expensive consultants who will never truly transfer knowledge.)
Flexibility? Too unpredictable. "What if something goes wrong?" (Better to be locked into an outdated product for the next decade.)
And when things inevitably go south, guess what? There’s always someone to blame the external vendor, the consultant, the software itself. Never the people who made the decision.
The Middle Manager’s Best Friend: Expensive Software
For middle managers who don't understand tech but need to "own" an initiative, commercial software is a godsend.
They buy it. (Big budgets make them look important.)
They don't have to manage it. (That's the vendor's problem.)
They have a built-in scapegoat. ("The tool isn't working, let’s escalate!")
It’s the perfect cycle. They’re not measured on results just on whether they purchased the “best” solution. Bonus points if the product comes with an army of consultants who will bill triple the cost of an internal team while delivering half the results.
Oracle DBMS: The Default Choice for No Reason
And if there’s one product that perfectly represents this mindset, it’s Oracle DBMS.
It doesn’t matter if the company’s workload could run just fine on PostgreSQL, MySQL, or even a managed cloud database. If it’s enterprise IT, Oracle must be considered. Why?
It’s expensive. (And expensive means "serious.")
It comes with premium support. (Which mostly involves escalating tickets until you give up.)
It locks you in forever. (Try migrating off Oracle and see how much fun you have.)
Many enterprises don’t even question whether they need Oracle. It’s just assumed to be the right choice because that’s what other big companies do. It’s the IT equivalent of buying a Ferrari to drive to the grocery store completely unnecessary, but it makes people feel important.
And when the licensing costs spiral out of control? "Oh well, it’s Oracle. What can we do?"
This is why so many companies are now scrambling to escape Oracle’s grip after spending years and millions pretending that nothing else could possibly work.
Why Build Knowledge When You Can Overpay for Consultants?
Take SAP as a prime example. Instead of building an internal team that actually understands the platform, many enterprises happily pay external consultants three times more than an in-house expert would cost. Why?
If something breaks, it’s the consultant’s fault.
If things are slow, it’s the system’s fault.
If budgets spiral out of control, "this is just how enterprise IT works."
Meanwhile, those same consultants ensure the company remains dependent on them by never fully documenting anything, keeping just enough critical knowledge in their own hands.
Vendor Lock-in: The Gift That Keeps on Taking
And let’s not forget the ultimate enterprise IT failure: vendor lock-in. The moment you adopt some obscure functionality that only works with a single vendor, you're doomed. Need to migrate later? Good luck! The cost and complexity will be so absurd that even suggesting a change will get you laughed out of the room.
Looking at you, Lotus Notes. A graveyard of unreadable archives, broken workflows, and companies still trying to escape your clutches decades later.
The IT Illusion Continues
The cycle keeps going because it benefits the wrong people. Enterprises spend billions not on better technology, but on safe decisions. IT should be about agility, adaptability, and ownership but in too many places, it's just a blame game wrapped in a fat invoice.
And the best part? When the same company that swore open source was too risky ends up migrating to Kubernetes, embracing Linux, and using PostgreSQL all after spending years and millions fighting against them.
Because nothing says "enterprise IT strategy" like paying extra to do what should have been obvious from the start.
Breaking the Cycle: How to Convince Management to Consider Alternatives
Challenging the status quo in enterprise IT isn’t easy. The fear-driven mindset, the love for big-name vendors, and the obsession with “safe” decisions make it difficult to push for open-source or cost-effective solutions. But it’s not impossible. Here’s how you can start shifting the conversation:
1. Speak Their Language: Cost and Risk Reduction
Management won’t care that PostgreSQL is technically superior to Oracle, but they will care about licensing cost savings and reduced vendor dependency. Instead of arguing about tech specs, frame the discussion around:
How much money the company could save over 3–5 years.
The hidden costs of vendor lock-in and migration difficulties.
How avoiding proprietary dependencies makes the company more agile.
2. Leverage Success Stories
No one wants to be the first to take a risk, but they’re happy to follow if others have succeeded. Gather case studies of major companies that have successfully adopted open-source alternatives:
Netflix, Uber, and Twitter running on open-source databases.
Large financial institutions moving away from Oracle or SAP.
Governments adopting Linux and open-source stacks to reduce costs.
Show that open source isn’t just for startups it’s a strategic move even for big players.
3. Start Small: Pilot Projects and Low-Risk Adoption
Instead of proposing a full-scale migration, suggest a pilot project using an open-source or alternative tool. For example:
Deploy a new application on PostgreSQL instead of Oracle.
Run a non-critical workload on an open-source solution.
Implement a hybrid approach where the company can compare results side-by-side.
Once leadership sees it working without disaster, they’ll be more open to expanding it.
4. Expose the Myth of Enterprise Support
A key argument against open source is "we need enterprise support." But in reality:
Many "supported" enterprise products have horrendous support experiences.
Open-source solutions often have commercial support options (e.g., Red Hat, Percona, HashiCorp).
Internal expertise is often more effective than waiting on vendor responses.
Show them real-world examples where companies got burned by expensive “support” contracts that delivered little value.
5. Demonstrate the Long-Term Strategic Advantage
Proprietary software locks you into a single vendor’s roadmap, while open-source tools give companies the flexibility to adapt and evolve. Position alternatives as strategic investments rather than just cost-cutting measures:
Avoiding licensing audits and compliance headaches.
Being able to scale or pivot without waiting for vendor updates.
Hiring from a broader talent pool (many engineers prefer working with modern, open tools).
6. Make It About Business, Not IT
At the end of the day, management cares about business outcomes, not technology choices. Focus your arguments on:
Faster time to market.
Cost efficiency and budget flexibility.
Competitive advantage by avoiding rigid, outdated enterprise solutions.
The more you align your pitch with business goals, the harder it will be for them to ignore.
Enterprise IT’s love affair with expensive, bloated software won’t end overnight. But by shifting the conversation, showing real-world successes, and making incremental changes, professionals can help their organizations move toward smarter, more flexible, and cost-effective solutions.
And who knows maybe one day, we’ll look back at Oracle DBMS, SAP consultants, and Lotus Notes the way we now look at dial-up internet: a necessary evil of the past that we’re glad to have moved on from.
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