LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: Richard Russell <richardrussell@mail.com>
  To  : David Drury <idavid@smug.adelaide.edu.au>
  Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2000 03:01:18 +0930

Re: An Idea...

> The answer here, contract support, since I work for a company that does
> it, it works well. The then also get support for their desktop
> PCs. Companies like to see a real person knock on the door and fiddle with
> the box for a while. Remote admin is a nice idea, and works well, but it
> is hard to convince a client you've done anything if they never see you
> actually do anything, and never see any effects of your remote
> administration. People are funny like that.

true... true...

Although what they see would be an efficient & proffessional organisation,
not wasting money on site visits, and they see added and improved services,
and have a garanteed level of support (ie it breaks, and we replace it with
24 hour old data, within a day), and the best security available on Linux...

It's a bit like a phone company, where you can call them, and ask to have
voicemail enabled, and they do it, and say "it will be enabled within a few
minutes.. call 888 to set your personal message"... You rarely see the
Telstra/Optus people, but they deliver a service that people pay for... same
with ISPs... You pay for the access, and occasionally it gets faster, or
they will email you and say "you can use our new wonder-portal now for
free!"

>
> > dynamic IP, but static permanant is better). The Client simply needs a
means
> > to shut the server down (in case they need to move it, or something),
>
> Which they won't follow, won't be able to read the simple instructions,
> will power off anyway, or the cleaner plugs the Vacume cleaner into the
> UPS and overloads it.

My understanding is that you can program Linux to shut itself down if the
power to the UPS goes off for some period of time. With an internal UPS
(which do exist, although I've forgotten the URL), this would mean that
unplugging it would cause the machine to shutdown cleanly... I think you can
make this aspect pretty much idiot-proof if you try...

>
>  they
> > need access to the tape drive, so they can swap the weekly/nightly
backup
> > tapes,
>
> Which again they will be incabable of following the simple instrucctions
> of how to change. Sorry to be so negative, but it is bitter personal
> experience, and reems of tech support anecdotes. Visit www.rinkworks.com
> for extensive examples.

yep, same experience... :)

Tape drives can be unbelievably sensitive devices, too... particularly the
multiple changer ones...

However, I don't think that this will be a major issue ... bear in mind that
any solution (apart from having a local IT guy) will involve changing backup
tapes, so this is not actually an extra chore... Also, when we eventually
get cheap, high-bandwidth connections, it could be feasable to do backups
over the internet, which solves that problem, as well as the problem of
keeping backups offsite...

>
>  and they need a network to attach it to. As well as this, the client
> > doesn't really want to invest in Computer hardware that will go obsolete
> > within a few years, so the system is provided to them as a service, with
a
> > monthly fee for providing the hardware, network connection and the
> > administration (basically like outsourcing for small business)
>
> Now that is a good idea, if you can make a stron financial argument here,
> many compainies will go for this.

It's really hard to work out the financials on this, as there are so many
unknowns -- even the cost of providing the service is really difficult to
judge, let alone the proce the market will bear... It's also hard to see if
it truly is scalable without actually doing it... If it is scalable, then
it's just a matter of getting enough clients to spread the cost over... if
it isn't, then the idea is a dud...

>
> <SNIP on the rest>
>
> I actually think this is a good idea from the technical standpoint, and if
> such a system existed, it'd help sysadmins accross the world, particularly
> in large organisations. The business side of things in your proposal will
> be the uphill work, as I stated before, remote admin is a good idea, but
> companies like to see a person with a floppy disk.

yeah, and unfortunately, I am missing the business part of the equation. I
haven't the first clue how to go about doing that bit, either...

>
> If you did develop such a distribution system, either GPLed or for a price
> I'd be on the queue to get it. You'd probably make more money selling the
> product than the service.

Yeah, it's just a matter of doing the hard yards in developing it, and then
convincing the people with the money that it is a good idea to pay a startup
for a service that you really need consistency for... Selling the product is
a good idea, but you still need to prove it to potential service
providers... I'd be interested if any ISPs, computer sellers or
outsourcing/contracting/support type organisations are interested in this
system... :)

rr


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