RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Tech giant IBM is getting pushback across the internet for a recent poke at much-smaller cloud competitor Yellowbrick. Among those most upset is ZDnet columnist Chris Matyszczyk.
He’s a “touch preturbed” about IBM’s “joke” via LinkedIn that while belittling Yellowbrick touted its own Netezza product.
“Yellow brick roads are for fairy tales. Netezza. There’s no place like home.” So said Big Blue.
Responded Yellowbrick: “Lions and tigers and dinosaurs, oh my! Get true #analytics #innovation for #hybridcloud with Yellowbrick Data.”
“Please, I don’t want to weigh the various merits of these two no-doubt awe-inspiring products. I do want to say that neither of these companies is terribly well-versed in truly cutting social media humor. IBM’s painfully gauche attempt at wit is only marginally worse than Yellowbrick’s straining for an appropriate Wizard of Oz metaphor,” Matyszczyk wrote.
“Still, the psychology fascinates me.
“Brand leaders don’t stoop to so much as acknowledge the challengers, the upstarty and the startup-y.”
IBM operates one of its largest corporate campuses in RTP, employs thousands of people across North Carolina, and is the owner of Raleigh-based Red Hat.
