Roger Seielstad

Software Assurance could ultimately provide some unanticipated benefits for most of Microsoft's customers - even as it turns up the heat on the software giant itself, says Roger Seielstad, a senior network administrator with Peregrine Systems Inc., an Atlanta-based consulting and software firm that specializes in infrastructure resource management.

"If the trade off for a higher cost of software acquisition and support is a corresponding increase in the level of support from Microsoft, it's a trade off I think will be worth making," he comments.In Seielstad's account, a maintenance and support licensing scheme like Software Assurance could force Microsoft to adopt a more "regimented schedule for releasing service packs and upgrades."As an example, Seielstad points to the software giant's spotty record on delivering Windows NT 4.0 service packs in a timely fashion - the intervals between service pack releases varied from two months (SP2) to almost a year-and-a-half (SP4).He contends that such practices won't wash with Software Assurance customers.

"Companies won't tolerate paying for a full year of support for a few hotfixes, most of which aren't applicable to their environments.They will expect a return on their investments," he comments.

"The overheads of SANs, Fibre Channel, HBAs [host bus adapters] and SAN Switches drive the cost per gigabyte of storage up," comments Roger Seielstad, a senior network administrator with Peregrine Systems Inc., an Atlanta-based consulting and software firm that specializes in infrastructure resource management."This can have the effect of making SANs attractive only in more specialized applications, such as clusters and very large data storage environments."

Winchester Systems' FlashDisk SAN-in-a-Box matches a FlashDisk OpenRAID disk array with six Ultra160 SCSI host ports.The result?A fibre-free SAN solution that provides a shared storage pool that can be accessed simultaneously by as many as six servers.

Roger Seielstad, a senior network administrator with Atlanta consulting and infrastructure management specialist Peregrine Systems, suggests that security be recast as a "team effort" that combines the best work and practices of vendors and IT organizations alike."Each member of the team has to add his resources to the team, and the combination should be able to provide a reasonably secure system," he says."From the vendor's perspective, code quality is key.Vendors need to provide audited code with few bugs to their customers."

As far as Roger Seielstad, a long-time network administrator with an Atlanta-based asset management company, is concerned, versatility is a key to advancement in even the toughest of times.If a network professional is good at many things, Seielstad argues, she can make the case that much more effectively to management that she's deserving of a raise - especially in the aftermath of company-wide lay-offs.

Roger Seielstad , a senior network administrator with Atlanta consulting and infrastructure management specialist Peregrine Systems , suggests that security be recast as a team effort that combines the best work and practices of vendors and IT organizations alike.Each member of the team has to add his resources to the team , and the combination should be able to provide a reasonably secure system , he says.From the vendor's perspective , code quality is key.Vendors need to provide audited code with few bugs to their customers..

According to Roger Seielstad, a senior network administrator with infrastructure management specialist Peregrine Systems Inc. in Altanta, Ga., versatility is a key to advancement in even the toughest of times.If network professionals are good at many things, Seielstad argues, they can make a more effective case that they're deserving of raises-especially in the aftermath of company-wide lay-offs.

"Honestly - the best path to a raise, good times or bad, is to be more valuable," Seielstad says.

According to Roger Seielstad, a senior network administrator with infrastructure management specialist Peregrine Systems Inc. in Altanta, Ga., versatility is a key to advancement in even the toughest of times.If network professionals are good at many things, Seielstad argues, they can make a more effective case that they're deserving of raises-especially in the aftermath of company-wide lay-offs.

"Honestly - the best path to a raise, good times or bad, is to be more valuable," Seielstad says."That doesn't mean [that you're] indispensable; that means [that you] take the initiative to learn how to do something else.It's all about adding value to your employment."

• "The overheads of SANs, Fibre Channel, HBAs [host bus adapters] and SAN Switches drive the cost per gigabyte of storage up" comments Roger Seielstad, a senior network administrator with Peregrine Systems Inc., an Atlanta-based consulting and software firm that specializes in infrastructure resource management.Abstract by FireSpout, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2002 101 Communications, Inc. Accessed from Computer Database Plus (c) 1997 Information Access Co.All rights reserved.

Roger Seielstad , a senior network administrator with Peregrine Systems Inc. , an Atlanta-based consulting and software firm that specializes in infrastructure resource management , speculates that a maintenance and support licensing scheme such as Software Assurance could force Microsoft to adopt a more regimented schedule for releasing service packs and upgrades – especially if customers demand as much.

Companies won't tolerate paying for a full year of support for a few hotfixes , most of which aren't applicable to their environments.They will expect a return on their investments , he comments.The current licensing model doesn't offer Microsoft the incentive to drive for high quality in existing products , as their revenue model currently is driven by sales alone , and new products drive sales..