Larry Boyd wrote:
>
> > This works with cereal and cars (and a lot of other consumables) because
> > I can buy a Chevy if the Cadillac is too expensive (or even a used car
> > if the new ones are too expensive) or Malt-O-Meal if the CFSB's are too
> > expensive.  However, let's say I wanted to link our HP3000 in Ohio with
> > the one in Texas to do disk mirroring and provide a hot site backup.
> > How many choices of software do I have that will provide this
> > functionality?  Three.  NetBase from Quest or SharePlex from HP (in
> > reality the same product), or write it myself.  So, we either bite the
>
> I just have to answer this one also -- Don't you think that if a vendor
> could write a product such as this, sell it for less than the
> competitors and sell enough of it that they can make a profit, that a
> vendor would?  Except in industries that have extremely high costs of
> capital (which s/w definitely doesn't fit), competitors are always
> interested in entering these areas.  When you find a situation such as
> this, the only rational explanation is that these two products provide
> the value for the cost.  Otherwise, additional competitors will enter
> the market.
>
> LB

In this example you would be assuming that all or even some developers
had the ability to create a competitive product. There are not too many
people out there with Gavin Scott's knowledge of the HP3000 that could
even come close to creating a competitive product to Netbase.
<I'm going to get toasted for this one...>
--
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**  Chad Gilles                    **
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