Old habits die hard, especially when it comes to buying network gear and accessories based on long-standing procurement practices. While it may seem easier to sustain the status quo, doing so can expose you to undue costs created by manufacturer price-gouging practices.

Case in point: Optical transceivers, which Gartner says accounts for 10 to 15 percent of enterprise network capital spending. This may not seem like a big budget buster, but huge markups on optics is the subject of a new Gartner report, entitled “How to Avoid the Biggest Rip-Off in Networking.”

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It’s an all-too-familiar story: Naïve but well-intentioned people get taken advantage of by an OEM that over-engineers and/or over-charges for equipment during a Request for Proposal (RFP).

Remember the cautionary tale about the West Virginia officials accused of wasting $5 million of federal money on enterprise-class Cisco routers that weren’t needed? While that story is 4 years old now, the significance isn’t lost because it remains top of mind when IT staffers kibitz about how the RFP process can go wrong—awfully wrong.

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There is reality in the hype that moving to a converged storage environment can produce major cost savings while paving the path to advanced virtualization technologies. Part of the appeal comes from the ability to use commodity servers and storage to build a shared storage pool vs. relying on a dedicated appliance that typically comes at a pretty substantial premium. 

Increased flexibility is another reason for moving in this direction. IT teams gain greater options in how they configure server and storage nodes to meet workload and application demands. Adjusting configurations is straightforward, so adding more disks to nodes is a pretty easy task. 

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Whether it’s food, beverages or automobiles, I want options and don’t want to be told what to do. I feel the same way about networking equipment. 

I’ve resented the fact that select vendors have had too much control in dictating choices over the years. I don’t think users should be told what, when and how they should buy, deploy and upgrade their network equipment. Luckily, those days are numbered thanks in part to the good work of the Open Compute Project, whose mission is to design and enable the delivery of the most efficient server, storage and data center hardware designs for scalable computing. 

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In business, as in life, a great deal of time is spent predicting the future, especially at the dawn of a new year. Market watchers are scrambling to identify the top IT trends that will shape buying patterns in 2017. 

Amid all the data gathering and crystal-ball gazing, I prefer to look back and learn from what’s happened in the past so I’ll be better prepared to handle what lies ahead. 

Last month, I attended the Gartner Data Center, Infrastructure & Operations Management Conference, which never fails to deliver an insider’s look at the latest priorities, challenges and transformations in the corporate data center. This past conference provided lots of valuable insight, especially when it came to the topic of cost optimization. 

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It’s an all-too familiar scene: The start of a new financial quarter signals yet another opportunity for CFOs and CIOs to debate the fate of proposed network equipment purchases, upgrades and support. If these two stakeholders are to come together to maximize the return on every IT dollar spent, it’s crucial they have a clear understanding of the shared IT value equation. For many, this is capex and opex through the lens of deferring or lowering capital expenditures without increasing operational costs. 

This approach typically includes a “sweat the assets” strategy for extending the useful life of stable network routers and switches. But first, you need to know exactly what’s deployed and supported under current maintenance contracts. Relying solely on OEMs to provide a full accounting of your network assets is akin to flying blind. Don’t get me wrong: While there’s great value in tools such as Cisco’s Smart Collector for discovering and gathering device-related data from all the Cisco gear in your network, it’s a place to start—not stop. 

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Having worked on Wall Street for many years, I’m a big believer in extracting the biggest return on technology investments. After all, anything that impacts the bottom line should be thoroughly analyzed from all sides of the value equation. 

Now more than ever, CIOs are being scrutinized for their ability to increase ROI while driving innovation and digital transformations. According to more than 3,000 CIOs and technology leaders gathered for the 2016 Harvey Nash/KPMG CIO Survey, the role of today’s CIO is being stretched in many directions amid shifting priorities and pressures. 

+ Also on Network World: Network World annual State of the Network survey results +

More CIOs report directly to CEOs than at any time in the past decade, rising 10 percent in the past year to 34 percent of the survey respondents. And, while 37 percent of the CIOs surveyed are still focused on saving money, almost two-thirds are helping CEOs identify IT projects that generate revenue. 

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There’s a big debate brewing over bimodal IT.

Gartner says it’s essential to have two separate but coherent styles of work—one focused on predictability and the other on exploration. 

IDC says it’s a recipe for disaster. In its just-published FutureScape: Worldwide CIO Agenda 2017 Predictions, IDC theorizes that by 2019, 80 percent of bimodal IT organizations will accumulate a crippling technical debt, resulting in spiraling complexity, costs and lost credibility. 

Meanwhile, Forrester has weighed in saying there’s only one mode for IT operations—and that’s fast. 

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With the school year underway, I’m reminded about the critical role that education and technology play in our future. Whatever your role—parent, teacher, student, mentor, employer, employee—technology literacy needs to be a priority. 

For those involved with elementary school students, the best place to start is emphasizing education that promotes science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). 

+ Also on Network World: STEM majors dominate salary-based college ranking +

STEM programs offer an excellent opportunity to infuse technology into the learning process early on. Business and education experts agree that STEM education better prepares students and opens the door for greater career options. A STEM-based education is important because some element of science, technology, engineering and/or math is evident in most well-paying jobs. A recent article in Network World stated a majority of the highest-paying college majors are in engineering, led by petroleum engineers with a mid-career median salary of $172,000, according to Payscale. 

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