[cobalt-users] Open letter regarding Cobalt Support

[Kris Dahl <kris@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello all, 

I just wanted to jot this quick note to the mailing list.

Recently there have been several complaints about the quality of support
offered by Cobalt.

While it is important to have end-user support directly from the OEM, it is
NOT the primary point of contact for these markets.  IBM, HP, and other
server vendors do not typically provide advanced end-user support to the
end-user (at least not without purchase of a warranty service pack).

This role has traditionally been provided by the VAR or reseller.  A
qualified VAR or reseller has systems engineers on-staff to help you decide
on a solution, implement the solution and then back you up if something goes
wrong.  Because the VAR typically has the most contact with the product in
'real-world' situations, they are the best equipped to handle the technical
support issues.

This being said, I would VERY HIGHLY recommend that all of your
mission-critical hardware be purchased from a VAR that has the technical
staff there to support you.  When I am talking about mission-critical, I'm
talking about routers, csu/dsus, switches, and especially servers.  I really
stress things that have lots of stuff that can go wrong, or are very robust
(like routers and servers).  VARs have set up dozens of setups similar to
your own and have seen many of the problems you have encountered.  It just
plain make sense and saves money to leverage their knowledge and experience
for your business.

And when push comes to shove, the VAR is able to gain priority access to the
vendor or distributor (which have dedicated people on-staff specifically to
help the VARs on specific products--like there is a guy(s) at IM that is the
MASTER at Cisco 1600s).

I assure you that if you decide to purchase your hardware from buy.com or
CDW, or even just a low-ball local reseller, you are not going to save a
dime.  You probably won't even save any money up-front, because
implementation is often where problems rear their ugly heads.

In any case, I want to get off my soapbox here, but I am very serious that
purchasing from a qualified VAR is absolutely critical if you plan on
running a 24/7 type solution.

If you are looking for such a VAR, I recommend my previous employer--Alpha
Tech Computers.  http://www.alphatechcomputers.com.  They are authorized HP,
IBM, Apple, Cobalt, and they can always ask me if they run into a REALLY
tough problem :)

Thanks, and good luck!
-k