On 7/8/2010 3:41 AM, Gary wrote:
In my 20 years of professional UNIX work experience, working for large
enterprises, never have I had to get a special patch from IBM, SUN, Novell, Red
Hat, to fix an operating system problem.
Were patches needed, yes, but nothing had to be done special just for the
companies I worked. Support generally is able to tell you which patch or
patches are needed, faster than one can figure out themselves.
In terms of support, my best experiences have been IBM and SUN while Red Hat
and Novell are the worst.
Frankly, you're lucky then. I've had to get custom code from a large
variety of vendors: Veritas, Microsoft, Sun, DEC, SGI, and even a couple
of storage system vendors (custom firmware). I've even had to get
custom code for things like integrated electronics in sensor systems.
And I've not worked in really sensitive environments like banking and
security. Merely ISPs, ASPs, academia, and software development.
The sad truth is that support contracts are a necessity at any company,
even those which never have to get custom code. And it has nothing to
do with CYA or lawsuits, or anything like that. It has to do everything
with IT departments being chronically understaffed by a minimum of 50%
or more. Sure, I might be able to dredge up the fix for my problem with
enough searching; however, (a) it takes time away from me either fixing
the problem or doing things I should otherwise be occupied with, and (b)
has a lesser chance of success than talking directly to a vendor, who
likely has both a much more detailed list of symptoms and fixes than I
have access to and almost certainly has people who understand the code
better than I can.
Support contracts are all about efficient use of resources. You can
cover a whole lot of systems for the price of one Sr. Sysadm out here.
Even at Oracle's rather steep prices. <grin>
I *did* like the DEC field circus folks. Watching them swap out
components (well, that didn't work, let's try this one!) was always a
blast...
--
Erik Trimble
Java System Support
Mailstop: usca22-123
Phone: x17195
Santa Clara, CA
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