[VoiceOps] Acme Packet (Abraham Jacobowitz)

[Alex Balashov]

I completely agree, and never meant to suggest that vendor support can  
be effectively replaced.  I was addressing it from a "could you  
conceivably get by" angle.

--
Alex Balashov - Principal
Evariste Systems LLC
1170 Peachtree Street
12th Floor, Suite 1200
Atlanta, GA 30309
Tel: +1-678-954-0670
Fax: +1-404-961-1892

On Apr 2, 2010, at 2:37 PM, Mark Lindsey <lindsey at e-c-group.com> wrote:

> On 4/2/10 1:23 PM, Alex Balashov wrote:
>> On 04/02/2010 12:49 PM, Lee Tannenbaum wrote:
>>
>>> Under the terms of the Acme Packet EULA, we will not support gray
>>> market purchased products like this.  Please contact us directly
>>> for any further information.
>> That is a well-known fact about most large telecom equipment  
>> vendors, and absolutely no reason for a small but well-capitalised  
>> company with good engineers not to buy grey-market equipment.
> You might be sweeping some legal and ethical questions under the rug  
> with that "absolutely no reason" assertion. Nevertheless, there are  
> good business and technical reasons to disagree.
>
> In the short term, for just getting the equipment setup, good  
> engineers can likely get you there. But in the long term, being  
> smart doesn't replace having the source code.
>
> The problem arrives when:
>
> (a) You need a feature not present in the software version you  
> obtained. (E.g., the quirky call-hold implementation next-month's  
> CPE SIP stack release.)
>
> (b) You need a defect fixed that IS present in the software version  
> you obtained.
>
> (c) You need to understand functionality in the software version you  
> obtained to grow your maintain your network.
>
> There's only so far you can go without vendor support. Good  
> engineers can never replace replace access to the people who  
> understand the source code. I've been working with Acme Packet since  
> 2004, and generally know my way around their gear. But I'm no  
> replacement for the software developers.
>
> You need the vendor on your team. Paying the vendor to (a) fix bugs,  
> (b) add features, and (c) answer questions is typically a good deal  
> -- as long as you're sending revenue-generating traffic through the  
> box.
>
> -- 
> mark r lindsey at e-c-group.com http://e-c-group.com/lindsey +1.229.316.0013
>
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