At the end of his post Chris noted:

> Perhaps another telling sign is that initially we ran more
> than a dozen high-end HP Netservers... those two are being
> retired and being replaced by Dell's top of the line servers
> (several dozen of them).

As a sidebar follow-on, I'll chime in and note that our Division
just took delivery of two DELL 6450 eight-processor capable
boxes (we only got two CPUs and 1 GB in each to start)...
While I am not responsible for setting them up, I just got a look
at the hardware and they are really nice boxes;  solid and very
well put together as far as physical features and assembly.  At
first glance (i.e.:  visual inspection only) hardware quality looks
every bit as good as our HP 3000.  We also ordered the DELL
SAN product, with 180 GB of 10K RPM disc:  Dual fibre-channel
all the way to each individual disc mech (not just to subsystem).


Anyway, I was fairly involved in the selection and ordering
process.  HP and IBM were the other "finalists"....  and DELL
"won" by a pretty convincing margin:

(1)  While the HP web site was pretty good at the technical
configuration side, as far as we could see there was no way to
get current prices;  you had to call somebody and essentially
REDO THE CONFIGURATION PROCESS OVER THE PHONE
before you could get accurate, current cost comparisons.  Of
course with DELL a click or two gets you an instant total and
cost update at any time.

(2)  DELL sent not just one but *two* very knowledgeable people
to our site;  that spent half a day reviewing our requirements
and giving us detailed technical information about options and
capabilities.  Over the next few weeks these two DELL reps
checked back with us a number of times to ask "how's it going
??"...  "need anything else from us ??...".

(3)  At the time we ordered the servers, the 6450's were not quite
in production yet;  so at the time of order we actually had to
spec the older 6350's (which were right at the end of their
production run).  When the 6450's went GR, DELL automatically
gave us the option to get the 6450's AT NO ADDITIONAL COST
(technically the 6450's were a couple thousand more (exact
delta escapes me at the moment) ).

(4)  As part of the deal, for a reasonable cost DELL tech reps
will be on Station again to fully configure the SAN and confirm
all is well before turning the complete system over to us.

(5)  AND (of course)  DELL was low bid.

SUMMARY:  It just strikes me that at least from our above
experience, DELL is now aggressively following the old "HP Way".
...  and they are winning doing it...


Sidebar SIDEBAR:  Wish I could hook our 959KS/400 up to
the DELL SAN...  Maybe down the road when the HP 3000 gets
"true" fibre-channel that might not be impossible (not sharing
space in the SAN with Win2K perhaps (although that would be
nirvana);  just being able to use a DELL SAN on our 3000...  It's
certainly not cheap;  just a *whole* lot cheaper than the high-
end EMC, et. al. solutions...

Ken Sletten