Re: Raid problems -- MIDRANGE-L

Frankly, yes. I've been working on these systems since 8 months before they
were announced. Maybe I've been lucky, but I or my clients have experienced
a grand total of 3 drive failures. The first two were in mirrored systems.
One of them was after the advent of raid. As a result, no data was ever
lost. In the last 3 months, however, I've had two laptops and a desktop puke
and die.

Sure, you can buy the cheaper equipment, but then you're on your own. When I
buy a system built in Rochester, I'm buying into what stands behind it, not
the bits and pieces inside it. If something hiccups, chances are real good
that it will keep on running. If it doesn't, I make one phone call and tell
them to fix it. No finger pointing allowed. :-))

Permit me an analogy. In the late 70's and into the 80's, a number of
overseas manufacturers of bulldozers entered the U.S. market to compete with
Caterpillar. They touted their equipment as being just as good as Cat's at a
lower price. They even formed alliances with some of Cat's US competitors to
provide them with replacement parts. Did Cat lower their prices? Nope, they
just kept pushing the theme that their equipment was the best, and that they
would stand behind it, no matter what. They even brought their customers
into the plants to demonstrate why they were the best. When you drive past
construction sites today, what kind of bulldozers do you see the most of?
Right. The foreign manufacturers are pretty much gone, and so are a lot of
contractors who bought the equipment. You can't move much dirt when you're
waiting for parts to be delivered.

By the way, it's my understanding that Cat and almost all of its dealers run
on a certain system built in Rochester, MN. Is it any wonder why?

Paul Nelson
Braxton-Reed, Inc.
630-327-8665 Cell
708-923-7354 Home
pnelson@braxton-reed.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Konrad Underkofler" <kdunderk@hoshizaki.com>
To: <midrange-l@midrange.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 29, 2002 4:01 PM
Subject: RE: Raid problems


> Paul,
>
> You really see the microcode that makes the drive iSeries specific
> is worth a premium of 1000% in cost? Cost effective? I saw the IBM
> 18GB SCSI drive the other day for $129. The IBM list is $1,400.
> Of course they use Seagate drives now anyway, the bare drive must have
> been cheaper than the IBM one.
>
> Just another reason why the iSeries is dying...
>
> Regards
>
> Konrad
>
>
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