What’s the Difference?
Software strategies have been a highly controversial topic amongst the IT community. Some support best-of-breed technology solutions, while others advocate for simplicity delivered by best-of-suite solutions. These offer broad but sometimes average capabilities. However, with the rise of Hybrid Integration Platforms, companies no longer have to choose between one or the other.
In order to get to a conclusion on this debate, we must understand the difference between best-of-breed versus best-of-suite.
Best-of-suite software typically provides a core function or application with supporting features that operate on the peripheries. The core model is considered the flagship and will offer the main feature. In the best-of-suite approach, companies will be handling affairs with only one major provider.
Best-of-breed, however, is thought to be the best software available, but in a very niched capacity. It executes its function extremely well, but often at the expense of versatility.
Instead of buying a product suite for a single supplier, organizations that choose to take a best-of-breed approach will select various tools, each of which serves a specific purpose. They will each buy a tool from a different vendor, then integrate them to perform their specific solutions.
Selecting the Best Options
Many CIOs view best-of-breed as a way to guarantee that each department has the best on offer. Here are a few reasons why they take this approach:
Flexible
Hardly anyone wants to be tied down to a one-size-fits-all solution, and best-of-breed solutions won’t do that either. They give organizations the flexibility to look around for the best solution for them. Best-of-breed solutions are smaller and can get implemented faster. The less project time there is, the less risk, allowing companies to start seeing benefits sooner.
Seeing the Bigger Picture
The smaller pieces and building blocks of best-of-breed solutions allow the Enterprise Architect to see the bigger picture more accurately. This gives smaller businesses the chance to start small and grow their technology stack with their business.
Employee Satisfaction
As you select the best tool for each of your departments, you are also making sure that your employees are gaining the maximum benefit. If something were to go wrong in one application, it won’t impact everyone else and hinder production. However, at the same time, everything does come at a cost. Some of the downsides to best-of-breed can include:
- Complexity: More vendors equal more databases each means more administrative work.
- Cost: buying the top of the line is never cheap. This can make for very costly strategies which can be a huge expense to smaller companies
- Integration: third-party tools can be difficult to integrate and some businesses don’t have the skills necessary for integrating individual systems.
- Managing data from multiple sources. This can drain resources and cause compromised integrity and data redundancy.