Re: [Veritas-bu] symantec and VERITAS merger good or bad?
Just to add to this, today I ended up raising a Symantec call - got given a case number, but rather than wait 8 hours, I decided to email them the nbsupport, log files, more detailed information about our configuration, where the EOM Status 84 messages are appearing, what I have done to resolve it. I got a call back within 1hr 30 mins saying thanks for the excellent detailed info, and got straight onto the case. I have to say, if I had not done my own investigation work / input / troubleshooting techniques, who knows how long the call would have remained in the queue. So all in all, not bad - sadly, they have not found the root cause of the EOM error, and its even baffling them now! But that is what I am paying for... A Service! Good or bad, I am sure everyone is going to have mixed feelings about this topic. Regards Simon Weaver 3rd Line Technical Support Windows Domain Administrator EADS Astrium Limited, B23AA IM (DCS) Anchorage Road, Portsmouth, PO3 5PU Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -Original Message- From: Paul Keating [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 16 October 2006 14:19 To: MCare Backup; veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] symantec and VERITAS merger good or bad? I have to say my experience echos that of Ed Wilts. The initial call is 99% of the time "send us the support script output,and the yyy logs and zzz logs".They have no idea about your environment, and you get no help at allfrom the first couple levels of support unless your problem is trivial,and after the number of years I've been at this, I tend to try andfigure things out a little beyond the point of trivial, so it's usuallyquite a little song and dance to get to backline. However, for the last 2 years I've been dealing with a reseller/VARcalled Kanatek here in Ottawa, and their front line guys are phenomenal,and if the problem is a real problem that they can't resolve, which israre, unless it's obviously a SW deficiency like a lot of the 6.0 stuffwould be nowadays I don't have to do the two-step to get itescalated. Once your issue gets escalated, it's pretty much the same asit's always been Paul -- > -Original Message-> From: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf > Of MCare Backup> Sent: October 14, 2006 4:56 AM> To: veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu> Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] symantec and VERITAS merger good or bad?> > > Hear, hear. The support went right into the toilet following > the merger, > and NetBackup 6.0 is questionable at best (although Symantec > may not have > had anything to do with that). But let me put it this way -- > prior to the > merger, I would have recommended NBU as a backup platform. > Now, I'd only > recommend it if I had no other choice.> > To top off their unacceptable support, I just got an offer to > take a one-day > class on NBU for only $3500.00. They can't even support > their own product, > why on earth would I pay them that much money for what must > be a one-day > seminar on how to open the .pdfs that come with the software? > > ___> Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu> http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu> La version française suit le texte anglais. This email may contain privileged and/or confidential information, and the Bank ofCanada does not waive any related rights. Any distribution, use, or copying of thisemail or the information it contains by other than the intended recipient isunauthorized. If you received this email in error please delete it immediately fromyour system and notify the sender promptly by email that you have done so. Le présent courriel peut contenir de l'information privilégiée ou confidentielle.La Banque du Canada ne renonce pas aux droits qui s'y rapportent. Toute diffusion,utilisation ou copie de ce courriel ou des renseignements qu'il contient par unepersonne autre que le ou les destinataires désignés est interdite. Si vous recevezce courriel par erreur, veuillez le supprimer immédiatement et envoyer sans délai àl'expéditeur un message électronique pour l'aviser que vous avez éliminé de votreordinateur toute copie du courriel reçu. ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu This email (including any attachments) may contain confidential and/or privileged information or information otherwise protected from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient,
Re: [Veritas-bu] symantec and VERITAS merger good or bad?
I have to say my experience echos that of Ed Wilts. The initial call is 99% of the time "send us the support script output,and the yyy logs and zzz logs".They have no idea about your environment, and you get no help at allfrom the first couple levels of support unless your problem is trivial,and after the number of years I've been at this, I tend to try andfigure things out a little beyond the point of trivial, so it's usuallyquite a little song and dance to get to backline. However, for the last 2 years I've been dealing with a reseller/VARcalled Kanatek here in Ottawa, and their front line guys are phenomenal,and if the problem is a real problem that they can't resolve, which israre, unless it's obviously a SW deficiency like a lot of the 6.0 stuffwould be nowadays I don't have to do the two-step to get itescalated. Once your issue gets escalated, it's pretty much the same asit's always been Paul -- > -Original Message-> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL > PROTECTED] On Behalf > Of MCare Backup> Sent: October 14, 2006 4:56 AM> To: > veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu> Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] symantec and > VERITAS merger good or bad?> > > Hear, hear. The support went right into the > toilet following > the merger, > and NetBackup 6.0 is questionable at best > (although Symantec > may not have > had anything to do with that). But let > me put it this way -- > prior to the > merger, I would have recommended NBU > as a backup platform. > Now, I'd only > recommend it if I had no other > choice.> > To top off their unacceptable support, I just got an offer to > > take a one-day > class on NBU for only $3500.00. They can't even support > > their own product, > why on earth would I pay them that much money for what > must > be a one-day > seminar on how to open the .pdfs that come with the > software? > > ___> Veritas-bu > maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu> > http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu> > La version française suit le texte anglais. This email may contain privileged and/or confidential information, and the Bank ofCanada does not waive any related rights. Any distribution, use, or copying of thisemail or the information it contains by other than the intended recipient isunauthorized. If you received this email in error please delete it immediately fromyour system and notify the sender promptly by email that you have done so. Le présent courriel peut contenir de l'information privilégiée ou confidentielle.La Banque du Canada ne renonce pas aux droits qui s'y rapportent. Toute diffusion,utilisation ou copie de ce courriel ou des renseignements qu'il contient par unepersonne autre que le ou les destinataires désignés est interdite. Si vous recevezce courriel par erreur, veuillez le supprimer immédiatement et envoyer sans délai àl'expéditeur un message électronique pour l'aviser que vous avez éliminé de votreordinateur toute copie du courriel reçu. ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
Re: [Veritas-bu] symantec and VERITAS merger good or bad?
As I know nothing had changed with support after the merge. The engineers are the same and the backline support is very good. The bad support is because of netbackup 6. They have so many cases open and they cant answer to all fast enough. The support for other products (HA) is very good, as it always was. The problem is that someone gave the order to release this crappy think and not the engineers (I hope that he is not working with Symantec any more) smpt > ---Original Message--- > From: MCare Backup <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] symantec and VERITAS merger good or bad? > Sent: 14 Oct '06 10:55 > > Hear, hear. The support went right into the toilet following the merger, > and NetBackup 6.0 is questionable at best (although Symantec may not have > had anything to do with that). But let me put it this way -- prior to the > merger, I would have recommended NBU as a backup platform. Now, I'd only > recommend it if I had no other choice. > > To top off their unacceptable support, I just got an offer to take a one-day > class on NBU for only $3500.00. They can't even support their own product, > why on earth would I pay them that much money for what must be a one-day > seminar on how to open the .pdfs that come with the software? > > ___ > Veritas-bu [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu > ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
Re: [Veritas-bu] symantec and VERITAS merger good or bad?
Hear, hear. The support went right into the toilet following the merger, and NetBackup 6.0 is questionable at best (although Symantec may not have had anything to do with that). But let me put it this way -- prior to the merger, I would have recommended NBU as a backup platform. Now, I'd only recommend it if I had no other choice. To top off their unacceptable support, I just got an offer to take a one-day class on NBU for only $3500.00. They can't even support their own product, why on earth would I pay them that much money for what must be a one-day seminar on how to open the .pdfs that come with the software? ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
Re: [Veritas-bu] symantec and VERITAS merger good or bad?
On 10/11/2006 3:17 PM, Martin, Jonathan (Contractor) wrote: > I'm not sure if it makes any difference but we're only about an hour > away from the former Veritas headquarters in Lake Mary, FL and we get > SUPER SUPPORT from our local rep. Our offices are a few miles from the NetBackup engineering headquarters in Roseville, MN (I drive past them every day on my way to work). Sales support sucks. Pre-sales is decent and technical support (especially lately) has been superb. .../Ed -- Ed Wilts, Mounds View, MN, USA mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
Re: [Veritas-bu] symantec and VERITAS merger good or bad?
I'm not sure if it makes any difference but we're only about an hour away from the former Veritas headquarters in Lake Mary, FL and we get SUPER SUPPORT from our local rep. I've got a response from any email I send her in 3-4 hours, and the pre-sales tech support guy gives me better tech support than any support engineer I've ever talked to there. Apparently my case is the exception because it sounds like everyone else's experiences have been negative. =( -Jonathan -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Greenberg, Katherine A Sent: Wednesday, October 11, 2006 3:07 PM To: Jim Horalek; Hall, Christian N.; Christopher Jay Manders; Bob Stump Cc: veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] symantec and VERITAS merger good or bad? I didn't realize we had local sales reps anymore... Our extremely responsive former sales team was replaced by some Symantec guy who takes AT A MINIMUM 3-4 weeks to reply to an email. I'm NOT IMPRESSED! I'm not sure if he's overwhelmed or what. What I DO think, tho, is that Symantec has given up on Customer Retention (which was always something Veritas did well) in favor of getting any of the MERGED product line (Symantec or Veritas) into more and more companies and not giving a crap once it's been in and paid for... Does Symantec have a different licensing model than Veritas? The Veritas model has carried over (I think, for the most part) even after the merger; for Veritas products. Does Symantec not realize that Veritas licensing is NOT just an *at purchase time* license and is re-upp'ed at some point (or not, as the case may be) in the life of the product's use at our companies? Another satisfied customer :) ~Kate -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jim Horalek Sent: Wednesday, October 11, 2006 2:20 PM To: 'Hall, Christian N.'; 'Christopher Jay Manders'; 'Bob Stump' Cc: veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] symantec and VERITAS merger good or bad? Make sure you contact your local Veritas Sales Represenative. They can push support for fast response. This is standard operating procedure for any Hardware/Software Manufacturer. Your reseller is another channel to use. Don't just let Support push you around. Jim -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Hall, Christian N. Sent: Tuesday, October 10, 2006 11:31 AM To: Christopher Jay Manders; Bob Stump Cc: veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] symantec and VERITAS merger good or bad? Bob, I would have to echo Chris Mander's thoughts as well. Their 2 hour callback is a joke. We very rarely call them, but when we do the results are always a mixed bag. Thanks, Chris -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Christopher Jay Manders Sent: Tuesday, October 10, 2006 2:14 PM To: Bob Stump Cc: veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] symantec and VERITAS merger good or bad? Hi Bob, We also have noticed. Support is the most notable difference for us. We try hard not to call any more, which may actually have been a strategic move on their part... I heard they 'let go' of quite a few support engineers. Anyway, the support system really feels like climbing up the ladder to get the backline folks involved. Escalation just takes forever and has become quite unacceptable. Their 2 hour call-back is a joke, in our current experience. Was great before. The system broke within months of the takeover, I note. Before the merger/takeover/buyout we touted how responsive they were. Now, as I say, we rarely call unless there is absolutely no other choice. It is a Symantec corporate culture issue, from what I understand. They did it with the Norton acquisition, too. Licensing and support of their products has also suffered. "Completely unresponsive" is the word I hear from our security folks in regards to their desktop firewall and antivirus software as well. I should also add that for at least 9 months responding to the support emails resulted in BOUNCED emails back to me. When reporting it to them they denied any issue, but looking at the header for the emails showed that there was a BIG mixup on their end in the translation of [EMAIL PROTECTED] into [EMAIL PROTECTED] Was this even ever resolved? It was so unprofessional seeing the bounces and hearing their repsonse that I just have nothing really nice to say anymore about them. Sorry for my rant. But, you hit a BIG button there for us. Wish it were otherwise Of course, others' milage may vary. And, this is my own $.02 and does not reflect the opinion of my own employer or mgmt here at LBNL. ;) Cheers! --Chris > It's been some time since the merger and I was w
Re: [Veritas-bu] symantec and VERITAS merger good or bad?
I didn't realize we had local sales reps anymore... Our extremely responsive former sales team was replaced by some Symantec guy who takes AT A MINIMUM 3-4 weeks to reply to an email. I'm NOT IMPRESSED! I'm not sure if he's overwhelmed or what. What I DO think, tho, is that Symantec has given up on Customer Retention (which was always something Veritas did well) in favor of getting any of the MERGED product line (Symantec or Veritas) into more and more companies and not giving a crap once it's been in and paid for... Does Symantec have a different licensing model than Veritas? The Veritas model has carried over (I think, for the most part) even after the merger; for Veritas products. Does Symantec not realize that Veritas licensing is NOT just an *at purchase time* license and is re-upp'ed at some point (or not, as the case may be) in the life of the product's use at our companies? Another satisfied customer :) ~Kate -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jim Horalek Sent: Wednesday, October 11, 2006 2:20 PM To: 'Hall, Christian N.'; 'Christopher Jay Manders'; 'Bob Stump' Cc: veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] symantec and VERITAS merger good or bad? Make sure you contact your local Veritas Sales Represenative. They can push support for fast response. This is standard operating procedure for any Hardware/Software Manufacturer. Your reseller is another channel to use. Don't just let Support push you around. Jim -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Hall, Christian N. Sent: Tuesday, October 10, 2006 11:31 AM To: Christopher Jay Manders; Bob Stump Cc: veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] symantec and VERITAS merger good or bad? Bob, I would have to echo Chris Mander's thoughts as well. Their 2 hour callback is a joke. We very rarely call them, but when we do the results are always a mixed bag. Thanks, Chris -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Christopher Jay Manders Sent: Tuesday, October 10, 2006 2:14 PM To: Bob Stump Cc: veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] symantec and VERITAS merger good or bad? Hi Bob, We also have noticed. Support is the most notable difference for us. We try hard not to call any more, which may actually have been a strategic move on their part... I heard they 'let go' of quite a few support engineers. Anyway, the support system really feels like climbing up the ladder to get the backline folks involved. Escalation just takes forever and has become quite unacceptable. Their 2 hour call-back is a joke, in our current experience. Was great before. The system broke within months of the takeover, I note. Before the merger/takeover/buyout we touted how responsive they were. Now, as I say, we rarely call unless there is absolutely no other choice. It is a Symantec corporate culture issue, from what I understand. They did it with the Norton acquisition, too. Licensing and support of their products has also suffered. "Completely unresponsive" is the word I hear from our security folks in regards to their desktop firewall and antivirus software as well. I should also add that for at least 9 months responding to the support emails resulted in BOUNCED emails back to me. When reporting it to them they denied any issue, but looking at the header for the emails showed that there was a BIG mixup on their end in the translation of [EMAIL PROTECTED] into [EMAIL PROTECTED] Was this even ever resolved? It was so unprofessional seeing the bounces and hearing their repsonse that I just have nothing really nice to say anymore about them. Sorry for my rant. But, you hit a BIG button there for us. Wish it were otherwise Of course, others' milage may vary. And, this is my own $.02 and does not reflect the opinion of my own employer or mgmt here at LBNL. ;) Cheers! --Chris > It's been some time since the merger and I was wondering how things > may have changed for you either positive or negative. My experience > has been negative. For instance. I work for the "State of Michigan" > and have an extremely large environment. symantec pulled our VERITAS > salesman and a very knowledgeable NetBackup support engineer and > replaced them with a symantec side salesman and support engineer. > While they are very symantec knowledgeable, neither one knew much > about NetBackup. I think symantec does not know the complexities of > the NetBackup product. It takes a long time for the end user to even > know how to begin to understand the NetBackup environment. If there is > a problem with your network or DNS, then NetBackup will quickly pointy > out the problem. T
Re: [Veritas-bu] symantec and VERITAS merger good or bad?
Make sure you contact your local Veritas Sales Represenative. They can push support for fast response. This is standard operating procedure for any Hardware/Software Manufacturer. Your reseller is another channel to use. Don't just let Support push you around. Jim -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Hall, Christian N. Sent: Tuesday, October 10, 2006 11:31 AM To: Christopher Jay Manders; Bob Stump Cc: veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] symantec and VERITAS merger good or bad? Bob, I would have to echo Chris Mander's thoughts as well. Their 2 hour callback is a joke. We very rarely call them, but when we do the results are always a mixed bag. Thanks, Chris -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Christopher Jay Manders Sent: Tuesday, October 10, 2006 2:14 PM To: Bob Stump Cc: veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] symantec and VERITAS merger good or bad? Hi Bob, We also have noticed. Support is the most notable difference for us. We try hard not to call any more, which may actually have been a strategic move on their part... I heard they 'let go' of quite a few support engineers. Anyway, the support system really feels like climbing up the ladder to get the backline folks involved. Escalation just takes forever and has become quite unacceptable. Their 2 hour call-back is a joke, in our current experience. Was great before. The system broke within months of the takeover, I note. Before the merger/takeover/buyout we touted how responsive they were. Now, as I say, we rarely call unless there is absolutely no other choice. It is a Symantec corporate culture issue, from what I understand. They did it with the Norton acquisition, too. Licensing and support of their products has also suffered. "Completely unresponsive" is the word I hear from our security folks in regards to their desktop firewall and antivirus software as well. I should also add that for at least 9 months responding to the support emails resulted in BOUNCED emails back to me. When reporting it to them they denied any issue, but looking at the header for the emails showed that there was a BIG mixup on their end in the translation of [EMAIL PROTECTED] into [EMAIL PROTECTED] Was this even ever resolved? It was so unprofessional seeing the bounces and hearing their repsonse that I just have nothing really nice to say anymore about them. Sorry for my rant. But, you hit a BIG button there for us. Wish it were otherwise Of course, others' milage may vary. And, this is my own $.02 and does not reflect the opinion of my own employer or mgmt here at LBNL. ;) Cheers! --Chris > It's been some time since the merger and I was wondering how things > may have changed for you either positive or negative. My experience > has been negative. For instance. I work for the "State of Michigan" > and have an extremely large environment. symantec pulled our VERITAS > salesman and a very knowledgeable NetBackup support engineer and > replaced them with a symantec side salesman and support engineer. > While they are very symantec knowledgeable, neither one knew much > about NetBackup. I think symantec does not know the complexities of > the NetBackup product. It takes a long time for the end user to even > know how to begin to understand the NetBackup environment. If there is > a problem with your network or DNS, then NetBackup will quickly pointy > out the problem. This is just 1 example. I think the support services > has also degraded but I have no metrics to support my theory. How has > your experience changed? > >--- - > >___ >Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu >http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu > > ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
Re: [Veritas-bu] symantec and VERITAS merger good or bad?
Ed I for one would be interested to hear your comments on MP4 if you actually find the need to apply it. There are features in 6.0 I like, but not at the cost of running risks to the Business, where their backups are now extremely solid. As for merger - My experience has shown that sometimes I have had to show them what I have done to fix a problem - However if you end up talking to a "real" expert that knows NBU inside out, you get reassurance of dealing with someone with good hands-on experience. Horses for courses really. Regards Simon Weaver 3rd Line Technical Support Windows Domain Administrator EADS Astrium Limited, B23AA IM (DCS) Anchorage Road, Portsmouth, PO3 5PU Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -Original Message- From: Ed Wilts [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 11 October 2006 01:24 To: Austin Murphy Cc: veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu; Bob Stump Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] symantec and VERITAS merger good or bad? On 10/10/2006 1:51 PM, Austin Murphy wrote: > I have only dealt with Symantec/Veritas after the merger and my > experiences haven't been great. My gripes: > > - Sometimes I can get decent support, but usually the tech people need > to "research" the issue or ask someone else. That's always the case if your problem is non-trivial. When you get to the backline folks, you'll find that they're solid with a good depth of knowledge. Now we talk to them a lot as result of the upgrade. We have contact information that I hope for your sake you'll never need. > - 6.0 is scary. How can they release backup software that may or may > not schedule your backups depending on its mood? This was certainly an anomaly. Previous releases have not been this bad. I can tell you that 6.0 is getting better - MP3++ still has a handful of critical issues but patches for those have been applied to the MP4 code base. We're expecting to install a pre-release of MP4 soon (I could tell you when but then I'd have to kill you :-)). I expect you'll be able to get MP4 in the not too distant future. We heard rumors on this list of a GA release date of October 15 for MP4. I can tell that in all likelihood, that date is not realistic. Trust me when I say that MP4 will be a *lot* better than MP3. > - Our account rep is unresponsive too. You would think they would at > least be motivated to help you give them your money. No, it takes > hours to get any kind of information out of them and they don't even > know how it is licensed. Go to a reseller - you really don't need to deal direclty with Symantec. In many cases, you'll get far better sales support from a reseller. Try a company such as Datalink - great sales reps and people who actually know what they're talking about. We've had cases where getting a license directly from Symantec has taken many *months* - purchasing new licenses from Datalink last week got us the keys in 2 days. > - Licensing is convoluted and undocumented (in my searches). Yup. No argument there. .../Ed -- Ed Wilts, Mounds View, MN, USA mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu This email (including any attachments) may contain confidential and/or privileged information or information otherwise protected from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately, do not copy this message or any attachments and do not use it for any purpose or disclose its content to any person, but delete this message and any attachments from your system. Astrium disclaims any and all liability if this email transmission was virus corrupted, altered or falsified. - Astrium Limited, Registered in England and Wales No. 2449259 Registered Office: Gunnels Wood Road, Stevenage, Hertfordshire, SG1 2AS, England ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
Re: [Veritas-bu] symantec and VERITAS merger good or bad?
On 10/10/2006 1:51 PM, Austin Murphy wrote: > I have only dealt with Symantec/Veritas after the merger and my > experiences haven't been great. My gripes: > > - Sometimes I can get decent support, but usually the tech people need > to "research" the issue or ask someone else. That's always the case if your problem is non-trivial. When you get to the backline folks, you'll find that they're solid with a good depth of knowledge. Now we talk to them a lot as result of the upgrade. We have contact information that I hope for your sake you'll never need. > - 6.0 is scary. How can they release backup software that may or may > not schedule your backups depending on its mood? This was certainly an anomaly. Previous releases have not been this bad. I can tell you that 6.0 is getting better - MP3++ still has a handful of critical issues but patches for those have been applied to the MP4 code base. We're expecting to install a pre-release of MP4 soon (I could tell you when but then I'd have to kill you :-)). I expect you'll be able to get MP4 in the not too distant future. We heard rumors on this list of a GA release date of October 15 for MP4. I can tell that in all likelihood, that date is not realistic. Trust me when I say that MP4 will be a *lot* better than MP3. > - Our account rep is unresponsive too. You would think they would at > least be motivated to help you give them your money. No, it takes > hours to get any kind of information out of them and they don't even > know how it is licensed. Go to a reseller - you really don't need to deal direclty with Symantec. In many cases, you'll get far better sales support from a reseller. Try a company such as Datalink - great sales reps and people who actually know what they're talking about. We've had cases where getting a license directly from Symantec has taken many *months* - purchasing new licenses from Datalink last week got us the keys in 2 days. > - Licensing is convoluted and undocumented (in my searches). Yup. No argument there. .../Ed -- Ed Wilts, Mounds View, MN, USA mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
Re: [Veritas-bu] symantec and VERITAS merger good or bad?
On 10/10/2006 12:49 PM, Bob Stump wrote: > It's been some time since the merger and I was wondering how things may > have changed for you either positive or negative. My experience has been > negative. For instance. I work for the "State of Michigan" and have an > extremely large environment. symantec pulled our VERITAS salesman and a > very knowledgeable NetBackup support engineer and replaced them with a > symantec side salesman and support engineer. While they are very > symantec knowledgeable, neither one knew much about NetBackup. I think > symantec does not know the complexities of the NetBackup product. It > takes a long time for the end user to even know how to begin to > understand the NetBackup environment. If there is a problem with your > network or DNS, then NetBackup will quickly pointy out the problem. This > is just 1 example. I think the support services has also degraded but I > have no metrics to support my theory. How has your experience changed? Our sales and pre-sales tech support changed. The post-sales support hasn't really impacted us much. First-line support in any major support group always tends to be a bit slow as they need to figure which customer forgot to plug the device in versus which customers knows what's going on but needs help interpreting a specific error condition. Once a call has progressed to backline, we have not had issues. I don't think the support is better or worse than before. .../Ed -- Ed Wilts, Mounds View, MN, USA mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
Re: [Veritas-bu] symantec and VERITAS merger good or bad?
On 10/10/06, Bob Stump <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > It's been some time since the merger and I was wondering how things may have > changed for you either positive or negative. My experience has been > negative. ... > How has your experience changed? I have only dealt with Symantec/Veritas after the merger and my experiences haven't been great. My gripes: - Sometimes I can get decent support, but usually the tech people need to "research" the issue or ask someone else. - The website is disorganized and all the good, useful info is in some secret location. - 6.0 is scary. How can they release backup software that may or may not schedule your backups depending on its mood? - Our account rep is unresponsive too. You would think they would at least be motivated to help you give them your money. No, it takes hours to get any kind of information out of them and they don't even know how it is licensed. - Licensing is convoluted and undocumented (in my searches). Despite that, it seems to work for me and I don't know of anything better. Austin ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
Re: [Veritas-bu] symantec and VERITAS merger good or bad?
Bob, I would have to echo Chris Mander's thoughts as well. Their 2 hour callback is a joke. We very rarely call them, but when we do the results are always a mixed bag. Thanks, Chris -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Christopher Jay Manders Sent: Tuesday, October 10, 2006 2:14 PM To: Bob Stump Cc: veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] symantec and VERITAS merger good or bad? Hi Bob, We also have noticed. Support is the most notable difference for us. We try hard not to call any more, which may actually have been a strategic move on their part... I heard they 'let go' of quite a few support engineers. Anyway, the support system really feels like climbing up the ladder to get the backline folks involved. Escalation just takes forever and has become quite unacceptable. Their 2 hour call-back is a joke, in our current experience. Was great before. The system broke within months of the takeover, I note. Before the merger/takeover/buyout we touted how responsive they were. Now, as I say, we rarely call unless there is absolutely no other choice. It is a Symantec corporate culture issue, from what I understand. They did it with the Norton acquisition, too. Licensing and support of their products has also suffered. "Completely unresponsive" is the word I hear from our security folks in regards to their desktop firewall and antivirus software as well. I should also add that for at least 9 months responding to the support emails resulted in BOUNCED emails back to me. When reporting it to them they denied any issue, but looking at the header for the emails showed that there was a BIG mixup on their end in the translation of [EMAIL PROTECTED] into [EMAIL PROTECTED] Was this even ever resolved? It was so unprofessional seeing the bounces and hearing their repsonse that I just have nothing really nice to say anymore about them. Sorry for my rant. But, you hit a BIG button there for us. Wish it were otherwise Of course, others' milage may vary. And, this is my own $.02 and does not reflect the opinion of my own employer or mgmt here at LBNL. ;) Cheers! --Chris > It's been some time since the merger and I was wondering how things > may have changed for you either positive or negative. My experience > has been negative. For instance. I work for the "State of Michigan" > and have an extremely large environment. symantec pulled our VERITAS > salesman and a very knowledgeable NetBackup support engineer and > replaced them with a symantec side salesman and support engineer. > While they are very symantec knowledgeable, neither one knew much > about NetBackup. I think symantec does not know the complexities of > the NetBackup product. It takes a long time for the end user to even > know how to begin to understand the NetBackup environment. If there is > a problem with your network or DNS, then NetBackup will quickly pointy > out the problem. This is just 1 example. I think the support services > has also degraded but I have no metrics to support my theory. How has > your experience changed? > >--- - > >___ >Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu >http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu > > ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
Re: [Veritas-bu] symantec and VERITAS merger good or bad?
Hi Bob, We also have noticed. Support is the most notable difference for us. We try hard not to call any more, which may actually have been a strategic move on their part... I heard they 'let go' of quite a few support engineers. Anyway, the support system really feels like climbing up the ladder to get the backline folks involved. Escalation just takes forever and has become quite unacceptable. Their 2 hour call-back is a joke, in our current experience. Was great before. The system broke within months of the takeover, I note. Before the merger/takeover/buyout we touted how responsive they were. Now, as I say, we rarely call unless there is absolutely no other choice. It is a Symantec corporate culture issue, from what I understand. They did it with the Norton acquisition, too. Licensing and support of their products has also suffered. "Completely unresponsive" is the word I hear from our security folks in regards to their desktop firewall and antivirus software as well. I should also add that for at least 9 months responding to the support emails resulted in BOUNCED emails back to me. When reporting it to them they denied any issue, but looking at the header for the emails showed that there was a BIG mixup on their end in the translation of [EMAIL PROTECTED] into [EMAIL PROTECTED] Was this even ever resolved? It was so unprofessional seeing the bounces and hearing their repsonse that I just have nothing really nice to say anymore about them. Sorry for my rant. But, you hit a BIG button there for us. Wish it were otherwise Of course, others' milage may vary. And, this is my own $.02 and does not reflect the opinion of my own employer or mgmt here at LBNL. ;) Cheers! --Chris > It's been some time since the merger and I was wondering how things > may have changed for you either positive or negative. My experience > has been negative. For instance. I work for the "State of Michigan" > and have an extremely large environment. symantec pulled our VERITAS > salesman and a very knowledgeable NetBackup support engineer and > replaced them with a symantec side salesman and support engineer. > While they are very symantec knowledgeable, neither one knew much > about NetBackup. I think symantec does not know the complexities of > the NetBackup product. It takes a long time for the end user to even > know how to begin to understand the NetBackup environment. If there is > a problem with your network or DNS, then NetBackup will quickly pointy > out the problem. This is just 1 example. I think the support services > has also degraded but I have no metrics to support my theory. How has > your experience changed? > > > >___ >Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu >http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu > > ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
