Hello
We have a Netapp 450 (the 486 EISA-based machine). NetApp will soon discontinue support for the machine and I'm curious as to what others think of this.
We bought our 450 in Nov. 1995 before the PCI-based filers appeared. We are a fairly small shop, (nothing like some of the huge servers discussed on this list :-), but we are delighted with our filer which has never crashed or given us any problems.
I understand NetApp reasoning for desupporting the 450 - it costs money to test each new version of the OS on the EISA boxes for what I assume is a small number of remaining users.
What do other successful vendors do with older hardware? Does the newest Solaris run on older Sparcs? What about CISCO? I have some seven year old Telebit netblazer routers and they still run the newest OS. NetApp compares its filers to routers, why can't they do what Telebit has been able to do?
Our 450 is 27 months old....its performance is terrific for our purposes and I'd have a hard time forming a technical and business case to replace the system with a new model.
I guess I just don't think 27 months is VERY OLD!
What do you think? I'm not bashing NetApp, they're a great company, I'm just disappointed.
Regards
Mark Richards Hicks Morley Hamilton Stewart Storie
You have every right to be upset. 27 months is nothing. We have a Cisco on a 30 month lease and we know it will be supported for years after that. We, and most every other customer of Cisco, expect that. An appliance is something that lasts for a half decade or more.
Chris
Quoth Mark Richards:
We have a Netapp 450 (the 486 EISA-based machine). NetApp will soon discontinue support for the machine and I'm curious as to what others think of this.
I think it is unfortunate. We have Suns that are six years old that run Solaris 2.6. There is probably an economy of scale for Sun that NetApp may not have, though. If NetApp wants to prematurely retire a hardware platform, they ought to at least do it by buying-out the installed hardware.
Regards,
David K. Drum david@more.net
In a previous note, David scribbled:
From: David Drum david@more.net Subject: Re: NetApp 450 end of life To: toasters@mathworks.com Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 10:09:26 -0600 (CST)
Quoth Mark Richards:
We have a Netapp 450 (the 486 EISA-based machine). NetApp will soon discontinue support for the machine and I'm curious as to what others think of this.
I think it is unfortunate. We have Suns that are six years old that run Solaris 2.6. There is probably an economy of scale for Sun that NetApp may not have, though. If NetApp wants to prematurely retire a hardware platform, they ought to at least do it by buying-out the installed hardware.
Regards,
David K. Drum david@more.net
I've had a 220 for a little over a year (how's that for short lived?) now and have recently purchased a 520. I'm pretty happy with both.
Regarding Mark's question above, I was told by my local sales rep should I ever want to trade in the 220 for a higher end system I would receive a *full* price trade-in credit for what I paid towards a new system. Was this just a sales pitch line to close the deal or does Mark not know that Network Appliance has such a policy?
-Ernie chan@mot.com
On Tue, 17 Feb 1998, Ernie Chan wrote:
|I've had a 220 for a little over a year (how's that for short lived?) now |and have recently purchased a 520. I'm pretty happy with both. | |Regarding Mark's question above, I was told by my local sales rep should I |ever want to trade in the 220 for a higher end system I would receive a |*full* price trade-in credit for what I paid towards a new system. Was |this just a sales pitch line to close the deal or does Mark not know that |Network Appliance has such a policy?
Well....I was told that as well, but everytime i mention that to me "new" sales rep the subject is quickly changed. I am assuming the offer is no longer valid. Can anyone at netapp confirm/deny a tradeup program at netapp?
Jonah
Jonah Barron Yokubaitis | Austin|San Antonio|Houston President | Dallas|Fort Worth|Boerne Texas.Net | Georgetown|Dripping Springs http://www.texas.net | Making 56k affordable
SIDE NOTE: Tom, could we get the list to have the reply-to set to the list? I keep sending replies to the poster, not the list. Just an idea...
+--- In a previous state of mind, Ernie Chan chane@comm.mot.com wrote: | | Regarding Mark's question above, I was told by my local sales rep should I | ever want to trade in the 220 for a higher end system I would receive a | *full* price trade-in credit for what I paid towards a new system. Was | this just a sales pitch line to close the deal or does Mark not know that | Network Appliance has such a policy?
This sounds suspect. NetApp's "trade-up" policy has always been troublesome (and I just went through hell with it).
Here is the deal:
Say you want to trade your f540 in for an f630. A system less than 10 months old. Well, first off, you only get to trade in the system, not the shelves or disks (so if you want new shelves, you have to buy them and use your existing stuff as well (if you can)). Now, the price you get for your current f540 is a flat rate. It does not mater if the system is loaded to the gils or bare boned. Plus, you have to buy a brand new set of spares!
(I just ended up buying a f630 and keeping my existing lease; it would have cost us $30k more to terminate the lease than it will for us to keep the equipment and make the monthly payments.)
So, If you are ever going to need to trade-up your system, I would get the terms in writting.
Oh, and leasing is a pain. Take the capital hit if you can.
Perhaps you are geting a special deal :) I wish I could have applied what I paid towards the new systems. I would have gotten money back!
Alexei
I've had a 220 for a little over a year (how's that for short lived?) now and have recently purchased a 520. I'm pretty happy with both.
Regarding Mark's question above, I was told by my local sales rep should I ever want to trade in the 220 for a higher end system I would receive a *full* price trade-in credit for what I paid towards a new system. Was this just a sales pitch line to close the deal or does Mark not know that Network Appliance has such a policy?
I'm not sure it's a company wide policy. We had a 400, and when it was EOL'd and we had to buy a new system, when we asked what the trade in value was, it was much less than what we'd paid. We ended up using it as spare parts and sysadmin bribes (Here, have some RAM. Here, have some hard drives.) Now that the 450's been EOL'd, we've been swaping down the scale. (We gave our 330 to another group, retired the project that had the 540, shipped the 540 up to replace the 220, and shipped the 220 down to replace the 450.)
I'm not sure what we'll do with the 450. It is a pity they EOL so quickly.
Amy
-
Alexei Rodriguez -
Amy Chused -
Chris Caputo -
David Drum -
Ernie Chan -
Jonah Yokubaitis -
Mark Richards