[THIN] Re: OT: Dell PE 1855 Blade Servers
- From: "Nick Smith" <nick@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 24 Jan 2006 13:08:18 -0000
Throwing my 2 cents in, we have traditionally been a small-business shop, so
our needs were different from some on the list (Management software, for
instance, is not that important if you only have one or two servers per company
you look after).
We've gone through phases of buying Dells and IBMs, and have dealt with quite a
few HP/Compaqs as part of taking them on in existing infrastructures.
At our low-end, Dell has been *way* more reliable than IBM in both servers and
especially PCs. We've had IBM server motherboards, disks, PSUs, RAID
interfaces, blow up on us fairly regularly, while Dell hardware has hardly ever
failed. HPs/Compaqs have been as reliable as Dell; we've found them harder to
support, but that's probably simply a lack of experience with playing with them
than the Dells.
I have customers who will never buy IBM again, as Jeff has for Dell. The IBM
PCs have been just *awful* - I'm not surprised they sold that division off,
frankly.
For the last three years we've been doing some bigger stuff, and it's all been
with Dell (Still quite low-end but lots of them), and we've yet to have a
hardware failure.
Bottom line is that in terms of general hardware server reliability, there's
probably not, nowadays, that much to choose between the big three - though we
can all dig up horror stories between us. Troubleshooting support (4-hour etc.)
should all be about the same or we'd be swearing about it. In London it's the
same guys who actually come on site for Dell, IBM, and HP so can't see much
difference there.
Where there *is* a difference, in my experience, is the levels at which people
want to get involved. Whenever I've tried to talk to IBM about what were for us
quite big contracts (Say 50k hardware), they, frankly, weren't very interested,
whereas Dell start getting specialists calling me when I float a £20k possible
order.
In terms of stability of companies, I'd say Dell is actually likely the most
stable, for the simple reason that servers and PCs *are* their company. For HP
and IBM, they're divisions, and if boardroom shenanigans want to sell off a
division, or merge, then those divisions are up for grabs. In the last few
years, HP and Compaq have merged their products liens and companies, IBM have
sold off their entire PC and laptop division. Dell just go on perfecting their
production clone-lines.
Nick
_____
From: Jeff Pitsch [mailto:jepitsch@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: 24 January 2006 02:55
To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [THIN] Re: OT: Dell PE 1855 Blade Servers
Have you read any of my statements? i have said they are my opinion. I'm
sorry if I haven't taken the time to list out my complaints (like OpenManage
which was stated) and those of my clients (like hard drives that can't be
replaced anymore because of some bizarre firmware issues). So please before
you start throwing mud, please read my posts in their entirety again. yes I
will bring up the fact of lights out and being in front means more than just a
processor, it also deals with management software (again), hardware in all it's
forms, blades, racks, etc, support for all of it. That is what I have to deal
with with my customers, I have to look at everything.
Besides, this entire thread is about peoples opinions and experiences, right or
wrong.
If you really want, I'll get one of my customers to list out why they threw
dell out on to the curve. It will take a couple of days but I'll get the list.
Jeff
On 1/23/06, Roger Riggins <roger.riggins@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Jeff, you said "...everything about Dell servers pales in comparison to HP and
IBM". I simply want to know why. If you can't expound on your statements then
we'll take them for what they're worth and move on. If it's merely an opinion,
then say so and don't present it as fact. Rusty's original post was about Dell
1885 blades. You didn't even answer his question, but immediately slammed Dell
and its entire server line. It's obvious that YOU are the one that has strong
feelings about Dell. Maybe Rusty isn't interested in lights out or being the
first on the block to run AMD procs in his NOC. Does that mean that mean that
he still shouldn't look at Dell?
Look, you are an enormous asset to this list and your opinion probably carries
much weight for many readers. That may be even more reason for you to be sure
to distinguish between fact and opinion.
As for this thread being about me: We are mixed Dell/HP. Our last server
purchase was HP servers. I have no loyalty either way and I was never offended.
All I'm doing is calling a spade a spade.
Roger Riggins
Network Administrator
Lutheran Services in Iowa
w: 319.859.3543
c: 319.290.5687
http://www.lsiowa.org <http://www.lsiowa.org/>
-----Original Message-----
From: thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Jeff Pitsch
Sent: Monday, January 23, 2006 7:07 PM
To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [THIN] Re: OT: Dell PE 1855 Blade Servers
Yes it does because Dell will ALWAYS be behind the other two. How long have
they had to develop a Management product for their servers and it still stinks?
Come one, 7, 8 years or more? they can't do better than open manage? Still
requiring VNC to be installed to remote the server? hardly a lights out
solution.
I don't know how anyone has offended you but you obviously feel very strongly
in Dell. Great have fun with them but don't take this thread like it's a
personal discussion about you.
Jeff Pitsch
Lutheran Services in Iowa Confidentiality Notice
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