Among techies, Gartner is the equivalent of credit ratings agencies. Just read/see The Big Short for an understanding of the analogy. Gartner data is basically waved by management to management as part of a perverse mating ritual More on reddit.com

I can only speak to some of this. I work in the B2B software world doing marketing. The reports have a ton of clout and are used by business and department leadership (mid and c suite) to help them identity what is currently best in class. The criteria for creating the ranking is actually pretty intense and they are also pretty intense with their own branding and how rankings are communicated by the software companies. The purpose is to give a super trustworthy 'review'. These reports hold a lot of clout when it comes to what companies get a seat at the table when tech is being evaluated internally. These tech companies use these reports in their marketing and branding all year long. I can generally say that these are very successfu and valuable assets for a company to rank highly in. I was initially skeptical as well but yah, it's pretty important. More on reddit.com

Gartner MQ is definitely still important. I hear about it all the time More on reddit.com

It's stupidly expensive. I've never found it worth the cost.

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