We Use Vendor X, But It's Time to Look at Vendor Not-X...

Started by deanwebb, January 05, 2016, 10:33:32 AM

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deanwebb

January 05, 2016, 10:33:32 AM
Like the title says... Vendor X is running well and I enjoy working with it. However, looking at upgrades and expansion for it has led to an impasse in negotiations. My boss just told me to get info about Vendor Not-X and report back on it.

So why did he do this?

My thoughts...

  • We want to see if Not-X with the features that we desire comes out cheaper than X, leading to a replacement of X.
  • We want to put forward some serious numbers about Not-X to the guys from X, so that they come around to our way of looking at things.
  • We don't care who we use, we just want the vendors to duke it out to see who's cheaper.
  • X has displeased us so much that we're flat-out ejecting them, even if Not-X is more expensive.

Most likely is 1 or 2. We don't like getting cute with our vendors, which 3 implies, and we tend not to be imperious, which is 4.

Even though I enjoy working with X, if the accountants prefer Not-X, then that's what I'm going to get to deploy. Immature guys would ragequit and storm off to another job that they'll eventually ragequit from. Maturity means accepting that the firm asks of me to implement the tools that they buy for me. My responsibility is not to a particular solution that I like, but to the solution that my employer likes.

So, I get to gather info on Not-X, and we may do a demo of it. If it falls on its face and craps out, then it's a non-starter unless we get it for free. But if it does pretty much what we want it to do, then you may one day see another vendor cert under my picture...
Take a baseball bat and trash all the routers, shout out "IT'S A NETWORK PROBLEM NOW, SUCKERS!" and then peel out of the parking lot in your Ferrari.
"The world could perish if people only worked on things that were easy to handle." -- Vladimir Savchenko
Вопросы есть? Вопросов нет! | BCEB: Belkin Certified Expert Baffler | "Plan B is Plan A with an element of panic." -- John Clarke
Accounting is architecture, remember that!
Air gaps are high-latency Internet connections.

NetworkGroover

#1
January 05, 2016, 10:44:18 AM
Heh, I live by a motto:

"Any experience is good experience - even the shitty ones." 

It has worked out well for me so far.  It means you live your life in a constant state of feeling like you're a dummy, but it also means you get a broad skill base.

Perfect example:  I wanted to be a Network Engineer - all doors were shut, I got a job at Websense which I wasn't thrilled about, but whatever.  Any experience is good experience.  Turns out part of working at Websense is living and breathing Wireshark just about every day - was one of the best skills I have ever picked up on a job that helps me consistently as a network engineer today.  I literally did a packet capture about 1.5 minutes ago to verify functionality of duplicate address detection on a product.
Engineer by day, DJ by night, family first always

Reggle

#2
January 05, 2016, 02:48:37 PM
As long as brand Not-X is a big brand with clear indication they mean serious business, it's worth considering. I mean, I'd be interested seeing if a Palo Alto works better than a Checkpoint firewall in a certain LAN and vice versa, but don't propose Watchguard 'cause I'm out.
The problem is, however, that the Not-X gear has to be capable of at least they exact same functionality as the current gear. And that's usually where trouble starts.

deanwebb

#3
January 05, 2016, 03:22:00 PM
Indeed. I'm looking at two other vendors in the Not-X category because the first one lacked a key feature, even though it had some cool stuff that X couldn't do. Second product looked to be a 1:1 match with the product we're using, so we'd have to do a side-by-side comparison to see which one has the edge in particular categories. Accountants will also likely do a side-by-side price comparison to see which one I should pick as the best...
Take a baseball bat and trash all the routers, shout out "IT'S A NETWORK PROBLEM NOW, SUCKERS!" and then peel out of the parking lot in your Ferrari.
"The world could perish if people only worked on things that were easy to handle." -- Vladimir Savchenko
Вопросы есть? Вопросов нет! | BCEB: Belkin Certified Expert Baffler | "Plan B is Plan A with an element of panic." -- John Clarke
Accounting is architecture, remember that!
Air gaps are high-latency Internet connections.

icecream-guy

#4
January 06, 2016, 11:51:26 AM
Quote from: deanwebb on January 05, 2016, 03:22:00 PM
Indeed. I'm looking at two other vendors in the Not-X category because the first one lacked a key feature, even though it had some cool stuff that X couldn't do. Second product looked to be a 1:1 match with the product we're using, so we'd have to do a side-by-side comparison to see which one has the edge in particular categories. Accountants will also likely do a side-by-side price comparison to see which one I should pick as the best...

bake off time, I love bake off's  I hope you got some kinds of good bandwidth testing capability, like maybe one of the Ixia products like IxChariot
:professorcat:

My Moral Fibers have been cut.

Dieselboy

#5
January 06, 2016, 09:26:42 PM
In my roles we usually find that vendor X provides 1,574,349,888 features and we use three of them (<- very slight exaggeration on numbers). I have no problem using and deploying vendor not-X equipment if it supports the features we need. Horses for courses.

One of the things to look for is does vendor not-X provide good support and warranty.

deanwebb

#6
January 07, 2016, 08:47:57 AM
We're also interested in vendors that don't have surprises with their features. As in... buy a product, deploy it, and then find out that to get the feature you wanted most, there's another $90K to spend that they didn't tell you about when you signed the PO.
Take a baseball bat and trash all the routers, shout out "IT'S A NETWORK PROBLEM NOW, SUCKERS!" and then peel out of the parking lot in your Ferrari.
"The world could perish if people only worked on things that were easy to handle." -- Vladimir Savchenko
Вопросы есть? Вопросов нет! | BCEB: Belkin Certified Expert Baffler | "Plan B is Plan A with an element of panic." -- John Clarke
Accounting is architecture, remember that!
Air gaps are high-latency Internet connections.

wintermute000

#7
January 07, 2016, 02:32:57 PM
Asa 10gb license says hi...
So easy to bash Cisco security products :/
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