SGI UPGRADES/MAINTENANCE MONOPOLY

[Christopher Gunn]

In article <1554 at babcock.cerc.wvu.wvnet.edu>, ab at canaan.cerc.wvu.wvnet.edu (Alan Butcher) writes:
> I received a letter from Silicon Graphics today indicating the use
> of third-party drives or third party installation of SGI components
> in my SGI system (4D/210S) would void the maintenance agreement.
> 
> What are your experiences with SGI in regards to 3rd party upgrades??
> 
> DO YOU KNOW OF ANY THIRD PARTY SGI MAINTENANCE VENDORS?? I DO NOT LIKE
> TO BE HELD HOSTAGE BY SGI FOR UPGRADES.
> 
> Alan Butcher, ab at cerc.wvu.wvnet.edu

My experience with computer vendors OTHER than SGI is that they always
want you to believe you can't add 3rd-party gear, but when it comes
time to cash your maintenance checks, they do in fact cash them.
For most companies, maintenance is a major source of both cash flow and
profits, and few of them can afford to turn away business.  Obviously,
though, you'll want to straighten this out before you SEND the checks,
else you'll run the risk of having a broken box sitting there while the
lawyers hassle.

In the weird old days with DEC, people sometimes yanked 3rd-party stuff
from their PDP-11s etc. before calling for service.  It's still a good
idea to be able to quarantine 3rd-party subsystems, so you can isolate
faults and not get into a situation where two (or more) vendors each
claim a problem is the other guy's fault....

Regarding 3rd-party maintenance, we have not been able to find such
even from otherwise aggressive outfits such as Bell Atlantic, or whatever
they're calling themselves these days.

Please keep the net informed about how you resolve this issue.  I've
got about $120K to spend on workstations, which I obviously intend to
populate with 3rd-party memory and peripherals, and if because of that
SGI doesn't want my business, then they're obviously not going to get it.

It seems so clear to me that 'hostage' policies like you've posted
gain companies a few disk sales and lose many more system sales;
I wonder why they do this, particularly if it's basically an idle threat?

Christopher Gunn	Molecular Graphics and Modeling Lab
SPAN--KUPHSX::GUNN	Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Malott Hall
913-864-4428 or -4495	University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS  66045