A thorough evaluation is one of the most important aspects of making any technology decision. Unfortunately, it is easy to fall into the trap of an evaluation in name only, where negative results are buried and risks are ignored or glossed over. This is especially true if the evaluation is performed by the vendor.
For example, a new and emerging technology may have all the bells and whistles to make your business heart swoon but it is important to consider how well it fits with the other tools you use in the tech stack. It is also worth considering whether it has good integrations with your other tools and how easy it would be to replace if you needed to.
Another factor to consider is the community around a specific technology. Are there people willing to help if you get stuck? Are they active on forums and in code review systems like Stack Overflow and Github? It's also worth checking out the project's age. A mature technology is more likely to be stable than one that's only been out a few months.
Finally, it's always worth doing a pilot to test a new technology. This should be done under the same stress you expect to encounter in production. Office or lab tests can hide problems so it's important to put the new technology through a full test in production. In addition, be sure to evaluate the impact of the new solution on other departments in your organization. For example, a solution that makes it easier for your staff to collaborate across departments will be more valuable than one that has a purely technical advantage.
