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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>I’ve had several replies
off-list, and just one reply on-list (on a different list.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>For what it’s worth –
the off-list responses I’ve had are mostly negative, citing things like uptime-impacting
diagnosis procedures, and excessively long (several months) time to resolution
for non-critical problems, and lack of callback for a dead system. I’ve
been advised by two people (which corroborates my personal experience) that you
must show dedication to managing your own case and handholding with support to
keep things moving, and if that isn’t enough, you must be willing to
escalate and elevate and become the squeaky wheel.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>One person said they don’t
have any problem with netapp support but hate the sales team.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>One person replied on-list
saying there are no problems at all.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>A couple of people have said
netapp has “growing pains” in the support dept – although personally
I don’t buy into it – personally I find it difficult to believe
their sales are so high and they’re pulling in so much sales and income
as to be unable to find adequate support skill on the market right now to
satisfy their support needs… Just my opinion.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Even among the negative
responses, at least a couple of people seem willing to stick with netapp
anyway. It seems there is either real or perceived value in their niche
that isn’t satisfiable by the other alternatives. I’d love to
know – In what ways are the netapp superior to sun, to make the netapp
more attractive even if you think their sales or support is weaker? I
know that for the features I’ve been looking at, the sun seems more
featureful than the netapp, so I’d like to know what else there is that I’m
missing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>As an example of the ways sun
has appeared more featureful to me thus far …<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoListParagraph style='text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><![if !supportLists]><span
style='font-family:Symbol;color:#1F497D'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><span style='color:#1F497D'>If you wish to snapshot
one device onto another device, with ZFS, you don’t need two
enterprise-quality filers plus software licenses. You can, if you want, send
your snapshot to any system running ZFS, which could be an additional
enterprise server if you want, or you could use some old PC, or anything in
between.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoListParagraph style='text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><![if !supportLists]><span
style='font-family:Symbol;color:#1F497D'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><span style='color:#1F497D'>All the software
(opensolaris, zfs) is open source, so even if something happens to the company,
your platform isn’t dead. You can simply migrate to a different set
of hardware and continue as you were.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoListParagraph style='text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><![if !supportLists]><span
style='font-family:Symbol;color:#1F497D'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><span style='color:#1F497D'>Because you’re
using a “normal” os, you can download or build other software
packages, such as monitoring software of your choice. The proprietary OS
is unfortunately proprietary – if you want to do something that wasn’t
already built-in, you’re out of luck.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoListParagraph style='text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><![if !supportLists]><span
style='font-family:Symbol;color:#1F497D'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>
discuss-bounces@lopsa.org [mailto:discuss-bounces@lopsa.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Edward
Ned Harvey<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Monday, April 13, 2009 4:40 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> discuss@lopsa.org<br>
<b>Subject:</b> [lopsa-discuss] Problems with netapp support?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>My VAR informed me that recently they’ve been getting
complaints of dissatisfied netapp customers having severe problems with
support, even for FAS products and not just the legacy storevault that I
have. I am wondering if people here can substantiate or refute
that? Either because you support people who call netapp support, or
because you personally use netapp support?<o:p></o:p></p>
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