Why vendor demos rarely match the messy reality of day-to-day IT environments

A writer reflects on the day after a vendor demo, when the polished presentation gives way to the realities of a six-year-old environment with thousands of accounts and inconsistent naming. Integration claims like a REST API say little about who maps fields, handles duplicates, or responds to overnight failures. Hard operational questions often get deferred to a roadmap, while enthusiasm in the room fades within a week. The author argues that buying decisions are made during demos but deployment problems fall to teams who were not present. Suggested fixes include running demos on sanitized copies of real data, recording blockers with named owners, and holding internal debriefs that include the operators who will maintain the system.