Conference decwet::networker

    I know this is an old string and all, but I still can't see the
    rationale behind Digital's Networker strategy (on NT anyway). I wish
    someone could explain this to me. Here's my perceptions, somebody
    please correct me:
    
    a)  Digital has an agreement with Legato, where Digital has the rights
    to the sourcecode of Networker on NT, and Digital has the sole
    distribution rights for Networker on NT/Alpha. This is done either
    because (i) Legato would not port the code otherwise due to lack of
    interest; or (ii) Digital sees a major opportunity for such a product
    and has negotiated what somebody believes to be a "sweet deal".
    
    b)  Although the Legato NT code on the Intel platform supports a myriad
    of tape devices, the Digital port to the Alpha/NT platform supports
    only Digital hardware. This is done either because (i) Digital does not
    have the resources to qualify and support a large stable of hardware
    products; or (ii) the entire exercise is to sell only Digital hardware
    in the first place.
    
    
    I don't know about other experiences in this area, but this entire
    scenario is quite difficult to deal with in the field. If you have
    customers that insist upon StorageTek or other 3rd party tape devices
    for whatever reason (like they *hate* the Odetics/TL8xx boxes), we are
    losing a potential Alpha sale. I know, I know, the stock response in
    such a case is that Digital has both Intel and Alpha servers and will
    sell whichever makes sense for the customer, but in many cases
    (including the one I am wrestling with right now), the customer already
    has a standard for Intel boxes and it is not Digital.
    
    So, the bottom line is that we will probably lose a goodly amount of
    server business in this case because of this Networker situation.
    
    What would the effort/requirements be to support, for example, a
    StorageTek 9714 with the NT/Alpha version of Networker? I would perhaps
    be interested in exploring this further if I could just get someone to
    talk to me regarding this subject.
    
    Thanks in advance for any help,
    Jim

	1.  Support of a device requires an initial testesting and
	    qualification.  This requires accesss to the all the 
	    required hardware and staff to do the testing.

	2.  Support of a device requires continued verification with
	    each release of NetWorker and O/S (UNIX/NT).

	3.  Support of a device requires continued verification as the
	    device is upgraded by the vendor.

	4.  Support of a device requires continued access by the support staff
	    for problem resolution in a setup that matches the customers.

	This all costs money.  There are hundreds of different devices 
	out there that could be supported, it is not possible to
	support them all, it is not praticial to support very many.

	DIGITAL attempts to sell a reasonable line of tapes and libraries.
	If you do not feel this is a good set of products please let
	the product manager (Don SUBSYS::GANLEY) or work with CSS
	(Rich APACHE::FENN).

	The NetWorker team tries to preserve any device recognition provided
	by Legato in the code we port.  We do not test the unsupported devices
	but we do not disable it.  If a device is supported by the Legato
	code base, the customer can request the device vendor to support
	them.  If we find a problem that is our fault we will fix it. However,
	we will not provide a one stop problem resolution.

	If the demand for a specific device is high enough then the NetWorker
	product managment may request support.  For this to happen they must
	have business cases from the field.  Please refer to the other
	notes in this conference that list the product managers.  The 
	chances for support are much greater if the device either holds
	the dominate share of the marked or provides something significant
	that other supported devices do not.

	
	We are not here just to sell DIGITAL hardware, but we are not here
	to make it harder for them.  We will always make sure that a complete	
	DIGITAL solution is available since many/most customers want one.

	

Roger,
Thanks for the clarification; I have never seen this explained completely.
Just one question:

>	The NetWorker team tries to preserve any device recognition provided
>	by Legato in the code we port.  We do not test the unsupported devices
>	but we do not disable it.  If a device is supported by the Legato
>                                              ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>	code base, the customer can request the device vendor to support
>       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>	them.  If we find a problem that is our fault we will fix it. However,
>	we will not provide a one stop problem resolution.

In the case of the 9714, the device *is* supported by the Legato code (i.e.
supported by Legato's NT/Intel product). Does the above statement mean that
a customer can contract with StorageTek to provide Legato support, if they
are using the NT/Alpha Networker product as a server platform?  I am
confused.

Also, are you saying that there is nothing to say a 9714 should *not* work
when attached to an NT/Alpha Networker server?

Thanks in advance,
Jim
	

>In the case of the 9714, the device *is* supported by the Legato code (i.e.
>supported by Legato's NT/Intel product). Does the above statement mean that
>a customer can contract with StorageTek to provide Legato support, if they
>are using the NT/Alpha Networker product as a server platform?  I am
>confused.

	This is an option for the customer if they don't like our libraries.
	Evaluation units, loan of products, there are lots of ways
	for the seller and buyer to work things out.

>Also, are you saying that there is nothing to say a 9714 should *not* work
>when attached to an NT/Alpha Networker server?
>
>Thanks in advance,
>Jim
	
	That's right.  If Legato supports it there should not be any major
	problems with the products not understanding each other.  This 
	doesn't meen that there are no problems, just that the odds of
	failure are low.

    Just an update to this string. This customer situation has been
    resolved by the customer buying the OpenVision product.
    
    Jim