I agree with Matt. USUALLY we get outstanding support from NA. We also track people we work with and keep an informal ranking system. +5=walks on water to -5=hang up and try again. We are a large shop with more than 140 filers world wide. This equates to a lot of interaction. Yes, we pay out the nose for support but we usually so pretty well with them.
In the instances where your engineer is falling flat remember two little words... Duty Manager
As far as tier 1 support, I have not found a large company that has quite met NA's bar but there is always room for improvement. C-
----- Original Message ----- From: owner-toasters@mathworks.com owner-toasters@mathworks.com To: Rasta Surfer rsurfer@gmail.com Cc: toasters@mathworks.com toasters@mathworks.com Sent: Tue Oct 20 17:59:30 2009 Subject: Re: Netapp Contract / Support questions
I'm a big netapp fan - I think the tech is great and I've worked with them on and off for years.
I think the one thing that netapp support does require in some situations, similar to some other vendors, is proactive effort on your part.
Netapp has a bunch of very bright technical people, but support can be hit or miss.
If you feel like your support engineer doesn't care or doesn't want to help (hasn't been my experience) or is just not understanding the problem/resolving it fast enough (definitely seen this), escalate.
And netapp, as opposed to other vendors I work with, will come through for you. You'll get someone from engineering on the phone, or a service manager, etc.
You can argue that you shouldn't have to do this, and in a perfect world, I agree. But whenever I or a customer of mine who is a netapp shop has been in a bind, netapp has delivered. I think that's worth something.
There are third party companies that provide netapp support, but other than for basic parts replacement on legacy systems, I can't recommend them.
Thanks, Matt
On Oct 20, 2009, at 6:49 PM, "Rasta Surfer" rsurfer@gmail.com wrote:
We're a small shop a couple of FAS 3020's doing basic, NFS, CIFS, Snapdrive/SnapManager For SQL and Snapmirror. We are up for our contract renewal soon. I have been in the biz for quite a number of years and can remember back to amazing support from Netapp. I have found quite the opposite over the past two years. Most are problems with first addressing the case, usually it took a phone call. Then it gets to incompetence with their products, like SnapManager for SQL and Snapdrive. Cases went on forever, i always had to hound them for status, making it quite frustrating. The end result of most cases is me getting a note from some support manager at Netapp apologizing.
I still like the products, just hate the support methods. What do you folks do? We of course want to upgrade when possible to keep up to date from bugs. We don't want to blow the bank though for their support if we can go somewhere else for better.
tia for your thoughts, rsurfer
I've been working with NetApp for 12 years now. We are a small shop with about 20 filers distributed all over the world. And I'm through ups and downs with NetApp support, too.
I know all the "features" rsufer writes. But whenever it was really important I always got help from NetApp. And in case of problems where more vendors were affected (e. g. Oracle, HP, NetApp) very often NetApp was the only one willing or capable to help.
For the same time periode I've worked with support of other vendors (e. g. with HP for HPUX serviceguard environments). And I think, where support of other vendors have worsened NetApp's has increased.
As Matt writes, I often see that engineers from non-NetApp companies providing NetApp support know less than me. They're OK for replacing parts or supporting non-production environments. But I would not let them support my production environment.
We have signed a contract with NetApp that provides a Technical Global Advisor (TGA). This is a person I know by name, email and phone number. Whenever I feel that something goes wrong with a case - regardless where on the world it is - I call the TGA and he does all the escalation, coordination and "ass-kicking". This is not improving support quality itself but it makes life much easier in case something goes wrong. A TGA costs some extra money and everyone has to decide if it is worth paying it.
-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- Von: owner-toasters@mathworks.com [mailto:owner-toasters@mathworks.com] Im Auftrag von Blackmor, Chris Gesendet: Mittwoch, 21. Oktober 2009 01:38 An: 'mzito@gridapp.com'; 'rsurfer@gmail.com' Cc: 'toasters@mathworks.com' Betreff: Re: Netapp Contract / Support questions
I agree with Matt. USUALLY we get outstanding support from NA. We also track people we work with and keep an informal ranking system. +5=walks on water to -5=hang up and try again. We are a large shop with more than 140 filers world wide. This equates to a lot of interaction. Yes, we pay out the nose for support but we usually so pretty well with them.
In the instances where your engineer is falling flat remember two little words... Duty Manager
As far as tier 1 support, I have not found a large company that has quite met NA's bar but there is always room for improvement. C-
----- Original Message ----- From: owner-toasters@mathworks.com owner-toasters@mathworks.com To: Rasta Surfer rsurfer@gmail.com Cc: toasters@mathworks.com toasters@mathworks.com Sent: Tue Oct 20 17:59:30 2009 Subject: Re: Netapp Contract / Support questions
I'm a big netapp fan - I think the tech is great and I've worked with them on and off for years.
I think the one thing that netapp support does require in some situations, similar to some other vendors, is proactive effort on your part.
Netapp has a bunch of very bright technical people, but support can be hit or miss.
If you feel like your support engineer doesn't care or doesn't want to help (hasn't been my experience) or is just not understanding the problem/resolving it fast enough (definitely seen this), escalate.
And netapp, as opposed to other vendors I work with, will come through for you. You'll get someone from engineering on the phone, or a service manager, etc.
You can argue that you shouldn't have to do this, and in a perfect world, I agree. But whenever I or a customer of mine who is a netapp shop has been in a bind, netapp has delivered. I think that's worth something.
There are third party companies that provide netapp support, but other than for basic parts replacement on legacy systems, I can't recommend them.
Thanks, Matt
On Oct 20, 2009, at 6:49 PM, "Rasta Surfer" rsurfer@gmail.com wrote:
We're a small shop a couple of FAS 3020's doing basic, NFS, CIFS, Snapdrive/SnapManager For SQL and Snapmirror. We are up for our contract renewal soon. I have been in the biz for quite a number of years and can remember back to amazing support from Netapp. I have found quite the opposite over the past two years. Most are problems with first addressing the case, usually it took a phone call. Then it gets to incompetence with their products, like SnapManager for SQL and Snapdrive. Cases went on forever, i always had to hound them for status, making it quite frustrating. The end result of most cases is me getting a note from some support manager at Netapp apologizing.
I still like the products, just hate the support methods. What do you folks do? We of course want to upgrade when possible to keep up to date from bugs. We don't want to blow the bank though for their support if we can go somewhere else for better.
tia for your thoughts, rsurfer
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