Ask HN: IT Director is forcing Microsoft in, how to stop? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: IT Director is forcing Microsoft in, how to stop?

9 pointsstop_themadness23 comments

Please hear me out before you dismiss this as a Microsoft hate piece, it is not. I have no problems with companies that chose to use Microsoft for their needs. That's not what is happening here.

The problem is, this particular individual is trying really hard to force it in the building. The reason I am suspicious is I had this exact situation like this happen at my previous large corp, where the CTO received kickbacks from IBM in order to switch us to 100% full IBM tech stack.

Similarly, Microsoft really seems like it is being forced in, against many of the developers wishes, most of us are using Macs and open source software to do our development (the primary tools are NodeJS, Go, and our legacy is in PHP). This also has the side effect of killing our company culture. Our DevOps team was used to deploying easy, prebuilt binaries (in the case of Go), or familiar with our PHP deployment strategies, and we used AWS for our infrastructure and now we have complicated Windows Server and .NET deployments. We have had a rush of .NET Contractors come in and implement things then hit the door (I am assuming so this director can build the case of -- "Look we have all this software now that relies on .NET!") and we also have noticed some sketchy behavior in editing Developer's HR profiles on what languages they originally said they were proficient in -- Many developers are now all of a sudden "proficient" in C# -- I noticed this too on my profile (again, nothing against C#, but I specifically removed C# from my LinkedIn and Resume so I would stop getting .NET-related jobs)

TL;DR: I am 90-99% sure that a higher-up IT Director is most likely also receiving kick-backs from Microsoft for bringing all these Microsoft tools in the building (over the course of months, we went from almost no Microsoft products to half our dev teams are now using the full suite of Microsoft dev + biz tools). Is there anything I can do I stop this?

Thank you

Kickbacks are most likely not the case. Why would a billions of dollars a year in profit company need to pay people to adopt tech? It is highly unethical and probably a fire-able offense for a sales person at a US company to bribe (aka kickback) potential customers to buy their stuff. Think about that for a minute.

Just like you and your peers have a culture of liking Open Source, macs, etc. he/she likely has a strong bias (culture?) towards Microsoft solution stack.

See if you can get some time on the persons calendar and ask open ended questions about the shift in technology. Rewriting an entire product or changing an IT stack from one tech to another is costly, even more so if 50% of the staff turn-over.

* Does management see this as cheaper?

* Do they value having a vendor they can call and an SLA support contract? Lots of large companies like this - "you can't be wrong in picking IBM" is a joke phrase for a reason.

* Is there some vision they have where they were convinced some tech will enable it? I've seen this too, they get convinced of some new way of doing things by consultants for a company, which comes along with using that companies tech stack. But mgmt doesn't care about the tech stack they care about how it can help the business.

* Does this person view Open Source tech like Node, Go, PHP as "amateur hour"? They could have a strong bias of using stuff from name brand companies.

It probably boils down to the IT Director having a different world-view than you and other devs.

> Kickbacks are most likely not the case. Why would a billions of dollars a year in profit company need to pay people to adopt tech?

A lot of comments here echo this sentiment and yeah, it's not Microsoft, but there are plenty of shady Gold Partners and Solutions Providers out there, as well as shady execs purchasing tech for companies.

I saw a company once hire a VP of IT who came in, fired most all the java devs (it was a java shop) and mandated .net. That was a dumpster fire, spectacular failure, company went under. The company was in trouble anyway, and .net transition was part of a bid to turn it all around. I always suspected that guy got kickbacks for the ms server and sql server licenses, but never knew for sure.

Ok so something like a buddy has a "Gold Partner" reseller license or something, IT exec is partnered behind the scenes financially. Then goes to JavaShopCo, becomes IT Director and mandates .Net, from the reseller they have a financial stake in, and profits from it.

That's shady and probably violates JavaShopCo's ethics rules, but people that would do that won't care.

Single vendor driven solution for all stacks (at least with Microsoft being the vendor) is more scaleable and easier to manage and support than shuffling multitude of open source fragments and solutions all over the enterprise.

If it's not a mom-n-pop shop trying to save pennies and dimes - it makes sense from CTO standpoint.

I've read multiple articles here describing single stack solutions as being a pipe dream. In the rare cases where they were successful, you need majority company buy-in. This is clearly not the case here, where this ramming-in of .NET and VS and Windows servers are causing massive fractures with our senior devs. Many are now resorting to doing P.O.Cs to show we are just fine without the Microsoft products.

Additionally, this actually harms our recruiting efforts, because the majority of senior C# devs are accounted for in this town, as they work for the larger 3 corps in the city's downtown district.

It might be easier to configure, but aren't you giving an awfully lot of leverage to that one vendor?

If you have SLAs with your customers, it would be pretty much mission critical to have SLAs with your vendors as well, open source is great until you are stuck in the middle of the night with a major system down and no vendor support...

You could pay for some kind of 24/7 linux / nodejs infrastructure support if needed I'm sure.

And if you are talking about bugfixes. Microsoft? That .Net or OS bug ain't gonna be fixed in a hurry just for your lil' shop.

You might be surprised about what the big corporations will do for their preferred clients...

The fastest solution is to publicly accuse a higher up of receiving kickbacks from Microsoft with no proof. I 100% guarantee you won't have the problem of working at a company where Microsoft is being forced in any longer.

ok smart alec, how do you get proof? should I hire a P.I?

No, you either keep your mouth shut or find a new job.

I worked at a large natural gas company in the US where the MS sales reps had accurately analysed the IT director to have Imposter Syndrome causing professional insecurity. By taking the IT director out to lunches - away from everyone else - and letting this person know what a smart choice they were making, how wonderful the .NET platform was, etc. they were able to persuade the company via this person to redesign all internal software from scratch using MS's UML design and coding tools. You might be in a similar situation, where the kickbacks are social and emotional rather than financial.

Separating decision maker away from distracting and legacy-invested lieutenants is wise approach and a win by itself to have a focused conversation.

I doubt its a kickback.

It's probably a more strategic decision to standardise on one stack.

I don't think this is how businesses work. Its like trying to get a teacher to not teach a certain lesson because you don't want to learn it. Aren't they paying you to do a job? Not the other way around. If you have problems adapting they might consider someone else who'd do your job instead, is it worth putting your career at risk because youre not comfortable with change?

You completely missed the point of the post. In no way shape or form do our dev's, including I feel like we couldn't use C# if we had to. The problem is the having to part seems abnormal, and against our company culture, and counterintuitive. We deal with change on a constant basis, so no, I am fine with change. I want the change to be rational, however.

Time to find another job.

It's almost certainly not kickbacks driving this.

Then why are shady tactics being resorted to?

Very strong accusations here. If you have any proof, let Microsoft know. They don't take fraud and corruption kindly.

Could it be that this is all a figment of your imagination?

Think about it. Can you prove that your current CTO is getting kickbacks? If not, then is it fair for you to talk aloud without having any evidence for your case?

Imagine what would happen if you start this kind of Gossip in your office. May degrade the culture that you value so much.

Now, the CTO seems to be doing what he is supposed to do. I am sure if you were the CTO, you would have wanted your favorite stack to be adopted by as many people under you as possible. Or it could be just that in the grand plan, eventually everyone in your company would have to move on to a single stack.

Maybe your reluctance to MS Stack comes from lack of sufficient knowledge of the stack and the resulting fear of unknown if you are forced onto the stack.

My simple advice to you my friend is this : Don't spread rumors in your workplace based on biases or prejudices and if you don't like the way in which company is headed, you should look elsewhere for places where you will feel better in line with company's vision and its policies.

"I am sure if you were the CTO, you would have wanted your favorite stack to be adopted by as many people under you as possible."

I find this to be a very dangerous attitude and inappropriate for a mature professional like you would expect a CTO to be. Every technology stack had its pros and cons and which one is right for the job depends on so much context a large part of which is what your team is experienced with and what you already have in place. To move to a entirely different stack that the team is not used to requires do pretty solid reasons. Personal preference especially by someone who doesn't even touch the code should not be one of those.

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