Just to add my 2 cents here. At my previous company the choice of VAR's was
extremely
important, we had heard horror stories about Checkpoint support (or lack there
of) and I
even had to use them once (which was painful). We got lucky and found a VAR we
could call
at anytime and get answers and suggestions. Of course now I am good friends with
there
tech, which doesn't hurt either! ;)
Daniel Harrison
Joe McLeod wrote:
> I think the support really depends on the vendor's business model. We use
> Checkpoint in only one or two locations, which makes us small potatoes for
> Checkpoint. We use Cisco products extensively, which makes us a
> little-bit-bigger potato for Cisco. (the dreaded "potato" business model
> :P)
>
> For us, contacting Checkpoint directly for support is akin to asking for
> divine intervention. We found that going through one of their VAR's, who
> happened to also be a dedicated network security company (and a good one, at
> that), brought much needed Checkpoint-approved technical assistance. I
> think Checkpoint expects small customers to use their VAR's and therefore
> does not give them priority over direct customers when they do actually
> contact to a human.
>
> Cisco uses the same model, such that a customer who only purchases a few
> products is expected to use a VAR. Since we are a direct Cisco customer,
> and are more Cisco-centric in our understanding of their design
> architecture, we have greater access to Cisco's technical resources, which
> makes their products easier to configure and support.
>
> Joe
<snip>
-
[To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with
"unsubscribe firewalls" in the body of the message.]
