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March 21, 2003
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New technologies must be taken on according to gut feel because it's possible to make ROI calculations dance in the wind. ~ Doug Finner
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Gut Instinct
In his article "Projects That Defy ROI" (March 5, 2003), David Joachim points out Dale Troppito's view that "even e-mail, which most companies deem a cost of doing business, can be justified by quantifying avoided costs such as long-distance tolls and FedExing."
Sure, it's easy (relatively easy) to see the cost avoidance involved in a technology like e-mail. How would Ms. Troppito quantify the way e-mail has transformed most businesses? New technologies break ground and bring unknown risks and benefits. New technologies must be taken on according to gut feel because it's possible to make ROI [calculations] dance in the wind and support whatever position you're trying to establish.
Nice article. Thanks.
Doug Finner
Senior Software Systems Analyst; KMC Systems
dfinner@kollsman.com
My opinions are my own and do not represent those of my employer.
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BlackIce Slip-Up
I understand that Mike DeMaria tries to compare many different features of PC firewall products in his review "Defense Starts Here," Feb. 20, 2003). However, I think he does a disservice to Internet Security Systems in failing to mention that the company's legacy BlackIce product, now known as RealSecure Desktop Protector, has an IDS engine superior to all the others. When it comes to not having antivirus protection or any other number of things DeMaria says this product lacks, who cares? I'd take the best IDS anytime and leave the antivirus protection to the antivirus software.
Michael Granger; Network Engineer
Storage Technology
michael_granger@stortek.com
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Star Managers
We've been testing the Orion Network Performance Monitor for a month, and Bruce Boardman's review of it in "Middle Managers" (Feb. 6, 2003) is on the money. SolarWinds.Net is adding a gigabit per month feature to Orion, which is needed to bill clients.
Of all the software, which would you pick for the best price? Orion stands at $2,000 for 100 nodes plus $500 for maintenance per year. Can that be beat?
Hypernia is the leading game server hosting company, and it's important for us to have the right network-monitoring solution.
James Vallord-Costa; CEO
Jemlex/Hypernia
james@jemlex.com
Bruce Boardman replies: Ipswitch's WhatsUp is very good, and the price can't be beat unless you use MRTG or OpenNMS, which are free.
Bruce Boardman might have mentioned Quest Software's Big Brother in his "Middle Managers" review. I find it better than WhatsUp Gold. Whats-Up Gold runs under Microsoft Windows, which isn't stable enough to base a monitoring system on. Big Brother runs on Unices (there's a Windows version), which I can rely on for stability and not have to worry that my monitoring system may have locked up.
Here in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Alberta, I monitor about 145 IP addresses for up to 10 services with a single monitoring box (that has other duties as well) and a phone that has e-mail and SMS. CDN is $30 per month anywhere I have PCS service.
Scott L. Delinger, Ph.D.
IT Administrator; Department of Chemistry
University of Alberta
scott.delinger@ualberta.ca
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Racks Racket
I read with interest Steven Schuchart's article "Equipment Racks" (Jan. 23, 2003). We had a few problems with our latest rack purchase. We have IBM x42 and older Compaq rackmount servers. The Compaq racks have square holes and special nuts, and are slightly longer than the standard rack. When we bought the IBM servers, our vendor sold us an inexpensive non-IBM rack. The IBM server fit the rack perfectly, but the Compaq sliding keyboard/LCD was too long, and the square Compaq nuts wouldn't fit behind the round holes.
Compaq, IBM and our vendor couldn't shed any light on the problems, except to advise us to purchase both racks and servers from the same vendor. [What's your advice?]
Peter Goudswaard
Information Technology Manager; Sto:lo Nation
Peter.Goudswaard@stolonation.bc.ca
Steven Schuchart replies: Compaq uses APC racks with the Compaq name on them. I've had problems with the sliding keyboard/LCD units from a number of manufacturers. Most servers and other rackmount products have some "depth play" for use in multiple racks, but many of the keyboard/LCD units, especially older ones, don't have this feature and can cause problems. Many of the APC/Compaq units also use a square-nut-in-a-bracket arrangement that many others do not, but usually those vendors have alternate hardware for that. I agree that buying racks from one source is a good idea. I also recommend purchasing future keyboard/LCD units from a third party, like NEC, that designs them for use with racks from multiple vendors.
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Clarification
We regret not having considered Fluke Networks' Network Inspector for inclusion in our cover story, "Network Management on $1.19 a Day" (Feb. 9, 2003). The product provides the type of strategic network management covered in the article and meets the price parameters we specified.
Tell us how you really feel. Write to us at editor@nwc.com. Include your name, title, company name, e-mail address and phone number. All correspondence becomes the property of Network Computing.
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