I cannot resist having some fun with his secret sauce metaphor. To quote Brian:
[...] VoIP software has been sacrosanct. It’s the secret sauce. It’s the way IP PBX developers ensure that their customers have access to the most advanced sets of call features. It’s how they add value to their product, differentiate from competitors, generate the majority of their revenue, and transform themselves from providers of monolithic PBX cabinetry and into communications software developers of the future.
I happen to think that Secret Sauce turned out to be not what people hoped it to be. Actually, I think that it’s not a sauce at all but a trans fat., which – at least according to wikipedia – is neither required nor beneficial for health.
If I were running a corporation, I would be suspicious of my communication system being dependent on a secret sauce. What happens if I get hooked and secret sauce provider goes out of business, what if their secret sauce does not mix well with the secret sauce of the other guy. Do I really want to take this risk?
I prefer my secret sauce provider to start making money on something that I actually want to pay for: developing more features, faster and better than their competition. Without hiding behind a secret recipe.
In several US states overactive legislatures banned trans-fats. I wonder if the Secret Sauce is next on the agenda.
