[ale] Server Vendor Hardware

[Jonathan Rickman]

On Thursday 09 October 2003 14:53, Robert L. Harris wrote:

> Suggestions based on working with the vendors?

Having dealt with both quite a bit (more with Dell), I can give you a very 
fuzzy picture of what you're likely to run into.

Dell - Great on the phone, but not so great on site.
IBM - Not so great on the phone, but great on site.

Dell - The on site service will generally always be conducted by a third 
party unless you're in Austin.
IBM - The on site service might be conducted by a third party, but many 
times you actually get an IBM employee on site. IMO this is a good thing.

Dell - In my experience they have about a 95% success rate in resolving 
issues within 24 hours. 
IBM - Easily 5 nines.

All that said, do not take the phone support lightly. Because Dell is 
better at problem determination and dispatch, they tend to respond 
quicker than IBM. However, that 5% of the time that they don't close out 
the ticket in one day can really suck.

-- 
Jonathan Rickman
Key ID: 0DF501FF