I sympathize. Because of both security and corporate requirements, we’re limited with regard to the vendors and operating systems we can run. (Going outside the standard choices involves a tortuous process that makes the siege of Troy seem like a mere lark in comparison.) However, the vendors we are required to deal with often work through a network of resellers that resemble less a system of professional salesmen and application engineers than an Amway gangbang of dyspeptic monkeys. In one instance, turf arguments between two resellers over who had rights to sell what to whom and for how much delayed receipt of a quote by almost three months, by which time I had already implemented a workaround that was, shall we say, outside of the bounds of corporate policy but functionally expedient. In others, I’ve had surveys, consultations, discussions, and near-inquisitions in trying to order hardware that I’ve already fully specified and merely need a price quote to submit to our purchasing system (which itself is a medieval process powered by the sort of machinery ordinarily seen in the films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet). There are some vendors I’ve just given up even dealing with or asking for support.
Yes, that would work, except that what we really want is to use the old funky IBM keyboard. You know the one I mean? It looks normal, except it’s… well, got all these extra keys and…
On the other hand, if you can tell me how the Operations Console software can emulate those keys using a standard keyboard, that’d probably work too. (This is probably my project next week, this week, someone else is effing with it and will give up shortly. I will then get the frustration.)
I know, but it’s quite nice, fits in a… is it 2U or 4U slot? About a foot tall, so 4U. Compared to the old beast I’m still working with that’s, you know, the size of a Honda.
And, unlike everything else in the (nonprofit organization), it works. Reliably.
I know, and if I could use a Mac for this app, I could cluster three of 'em together for the budget I have to buy this one IBM. And now that I have the quote back, I’m getting schtupped for any number of things that I shouldn’t be. The HACMP software that is on the quote for $6,400 comes INSTALLED AS PART OF THE CONFIGURATION ON THE NEW SERVER.
You know how at one point consumer level engineered products demanded a premium based on the quality, fit, and finish of the parts making the product as a whole?
And those companies that made the finest, highest quality parts and sold the most expensive finished products were bought out by the average guys because the average guys’ crap wore out and they had huge incomes from the repair parts and other aftermarket streams?
So, now, pretty much everything isn’t as good as it once was because there is no long term economic incentive for quality commodity product.
The same basic idea applies to the computer world only the after market is services and support. IBM doesn’t want to be a business machine company. They want to be a services and support company. Their goal isn’t to sell you a quality piece of electronic computer equipment… their goal is to create an ongoing monetized business relationship with you.
If you want computer hardware, go to a hardware vendor, not a service company.
IBM still makes and sells excellent machines and equipment (for now). That’s just not their future plan. They’re selling off bits and pieces of their hardware operations and focusing on services, services, services with their remaining hardware. As you found out.
