Gartner analysts spend tremendous time and effort preparing for this conference. Presentations are due to our editing and multimedia departments weeks in advance, but for some reason, IT doesn’t stop, so there are very few analysts who turn in their work on time. Personally, I always make changes as late as the day of the presentation – that’s just a little more real-world.

I love these conferences. During the year, I spend a large percentage of my time on the phone with clients (600 or so calls this year?). I also visit with clients face-to-face throughout the year (I think I visited with perhaps a hundred this year). However, nothing compares with the density of client conversations that take place at Symposium.

For me, Symposium is about four days of constant client interaction. This year, I’ll deliver two presentations (one on cloud and private cloud computing, one on virtualization), a debate (is private cloud real?), a client roundtable, about 40 one-on-ones, two breakfasts with clients, two lunches with clients, a dinner with one client, and another dinner with a few dozen key CIOs. History says, all remaining open time will disappear as soon as I arrive. This will be solid 7am to 10pm client discussions.

I know they come to get advice from us, but we come to hear about their issues.

There is no better way to measure the pulse of IT users. Every interaction is a specific issue that a decision-maker needs to solve. I’m put on the spot, every thirty minutes or so. Sometimes, I can’t answer a question, but I can usually move them closer to an answer, or line up another Gartner analyst who can. But most of the time, there’s a two-way transfer that takes place – I give the client actionable advice based on 25 years of experience and thousands of real client interactions, and they give me a new and up-to-date real-world issue.

An analyst’s job is about being an expert who can help clients with actionable and strategic advice. But an analyst’s job is also about being a learning machine. There’s a tremendous amount of information out there, and it’s our job to find the important nuggets, filter out the chaff, find the patterns, and determine the actions that help our clients the most. And this is what makes the job interesting and keeps me on top of my game.

This year I’ll be active tweeting during the conference. Of course, nothing confidential about individual clients, but I’ll tweet about the pulse of the market and things that are coming up often (tombitt on Twitter, and I’ll hash my tweets with #GartnerSym).

And for those of you coming to the conference, I’ll see you there, and hope you get as much out of it as I do!

As an analyst at Gartner, I can’t describe how angry I get when I read bloggers spouting as “fact” their opinion that I and my teammates have no integrity. That we can be “bought.”

In my 14+ years at Gartner, I have never, ever allowed a vendor to influence my opinion with anything but facts. Period. They have certainly tried to influence me with non-facts. I can say this definitively – it has never worked.

I don’t think there is a single vendor that I have dealt with who has not been very angry with me at some point. Tough. I’ve been yelled at by many IT executives – including the CEOs of Microsoft and HP, and many other firms. I can’t think of one of those cases when I changed my analysis one bit. I can’t speak for other firms, but at Gartner, getting yelled at by a CEO is a badge of honor. Being proven right as time goes on – priceless. 

I certainly spend time helping vendors with their strategies and their marketing messages – and I enjoy doing it. Frankly, the ones who yell at us the most seem to respect our opinion the most. We can spot holes a mile away, and engaged early enough, we can help vendors fill those holes with real product offerings – that not only help the vendors, but help our end user clients. And my primary business is helping end users.

I worked at IBM for 11 years. During the last few years, I was doing some technical evangelizing to analyst firms – and hiring these firms to write white papers. There were plenty available for hire – and still are. There was only one firm that wouldn’t allow us to edit their work – Gartner. Only one. We tried, but they wouldn’t budge. They could not be bought. It was unusual, and I completely respected that. When the opportunity came to join Gartner, I jumped. I wouldn’t have even considered anyone else.

Since I’ve joined the firm, my appreciation for the integrity of the firm and its analysts has only increased. If I felt that the firm’s integrity was bending, first I would fight it with all my might, and then I would be outta there. I’m not gone yet!

So I understand the impression in the marketplace that analyst firms can be bought. But that’s not where I work. My integrity is very important to me. I’m sure we’ll continue to make enemies of vendors, and bloggers who have a vested interest in one thing or another. Badge of honor! But my goal is to provide value to my clients, and to be proven right over time – priceless!

End of rant.

So, with respect, I’ve riffed off his list and made my own that helped me to describe that balance a little better. I would encourage my industry colleagues (including those from Gartner!) to comment.

1) Listen: All good analysts are good listeners. They learn from every useful resource. Social communities are a valuable and very dynamic source of information and feedback – especially as analysts are forming their early thinking about a subject. Good analysts are willing to make mistakes, publicly, get feedback, and adjust.

2) Connect: A connected analyst not only finds and learns from connections, but shares those connections with others. A successful analyst is a resource not only for personal knowledge, but knowledge elsewhere in the online community – they can’t be seen as a dead-end of information, but as a router to other information (some of which may be behind the paywall, and that’s OK).

3) Contribute: Connected analysts should add to the discussions that relate to their areas of expertise, comment on industry trends and events, and build relationships with members of the community (including competitors!). A successful analyst doesn’t use the community as an obvious sales tool. On the other hand, the successful analyst cannot freely distribute all of their knowledge. Finding the right balance point where they are a valued community contributor (but can obviously do more) is critical.

4) Lead: Connected analysts should be very active in leading community dialogue, especially in terms of new trends, major changes, etc. Successful analysts will draw the line on sharing specific ramifications and specific recommendations – this is value that should be reserved behind the paywall.

5) Succeed: A successful analyst must do more than build a reputation as a public thought leader, or a great public collaborator. Successful analysts also participate in communities to learn and grow, and ultimately provide better advice and counsel to their paying customers. It’s relatively easy for a smart analyst to elevate themselves on a public stage – it’s much harder to elevate yourself while not sacrificing how you or your company actually make money. Successful analysts can do both – and that’s mainly about finding the right balance between public sharing of knowledge, and keeping high-value knowledge behind the paywall.

I’m a vice president and distinguished analyst with Gartner Research. I’m the lead analyst responsible for server virtualization and real-time infrastructure architectures. However, my primary area of focus is cloud computing.

Before joining Gartner fourteen years ago, I was a division plan manager and chief software engineer with IBM. I’ve been in the IT industry for 25 years.

With Gartner analyst Neil MacDonald, I published research about computing appliances starting in 1999.

In 2001, with Gartner analyst Donna Scott, I developed the real-time infrastructure concept – before the industry was talking about autonomic, dynamic, on demand, or adaptive anything. In 2001, I explained how service providers would leverage these concepts to change the idea of outsourcing completely (what has since become the engine of cloud computing). 

I published research explaining the importance of start-up VMware when that company had 50 employees. For the past seven years, I’ve advised the industry about the virtualization trend.

In 2004, I invented the concept of the meta OS – a conceptual operating system that spans distributed systems and takes on some of the services provided by traditional operating systems (starting to be promoted by vendors such as VMware and Microsoft in 2008).

Now, I focus on virtualization trends, general infrastructure and operations future, and cloud computing.