ADSM-L

Re: OK IBM _ ENOUGH ALREADY with the IBM/Tivoli TSM website -

2002-10-24 11:18:32
Subject: Re: OK IBM _ ENOUGH ALREADY with the IBM/Tivoli TSM website -
From: Roger Deschner <rogerd AT UIC DOT EDU>
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2002 10:16:40 -0500
After fielding numerous questions from our end-users about where to get
client code, I went in to get it myself. After following the circles
around and around to dizziness, I hit the jackpot: I got the popup
ibm.com web site survey. Well, in almost all categories, it got marks
somewhere between "poor" and "terrible". (i.e. 3 down to 0 on the 1-10
scale). I clicked "Submit" satisfied that, well, they asked, and they
got what they asked for.

At a major campuswide seminar yesterday afternoon, I was forced to
admit to our end-user consultants that client code was "temporarily
unavailable". Until now, I have been loath to maintain a local library
of client code, because it is always changing and it would be a
maintenance headache. Until now. I now think I've got a new maintenance
headache - a local library of client code to build and maintain.

Also, the new web pages are MUCH SLOWER than the old. I finally broke
out of the loops to find the WinXP 5.1.5 client code, and it took 20
minutes to download via our really wide pipe to the 'net. Our students
can download a similarly sized music file in an eyeblink. It's going to
take me all day to build that new local library of client code for
various platforms. I'll try the ftp site, which is not anything I'd
inflict on end-users.

When it comes to browsers, we mostly use Netscape, we distribute it to
our end-users, and we mildly discourage IE due to security concerns and
incompatibility with some of our own web pages.

We were warned that there would be something new coming on the horizon,
and that this would be about the time it would come down the tracks.
When it arrived, it was clearly a train wreck. I suggest that a
temporary backout to the old web site would be appropriate until the new
one can be made to work. (With the newest client code made available
via the old site until the new site works.)

Adolph Kahan (below) is a leader in SHARE's ITSM project, so I hope his
influence helps get something done about this pretty quickly. (At
moments like this, you see the value of user groups like SHARE!) It has
been a public embarassment to those of us who are proponents of ITSM at
our sites.

Roger Deschner      University of Illinois at Chicago     rogerd AT uic DOT edu


On Wed, 23 Oct 2002, Adolph Kahan wrote:

>I escalated this to the TSM Product Manager in San Jose. He is following
>up with the developers of the Web Site.
>
>I also sent a note to the FEEDBACK mechanism and was told that some of
>the problems could be due to the Browser I was running. They now only
>support Internet Explorer. If you use Netscape on Windows or any other
>platform, you are out of luck. Netscape is one of the few browsers that
>run on Linux and various UNIX flavors.
>
>Whoever was responsible for the architecture of the new "unimproved" web
>site really missed the boat.
>
>
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On Behalf Of
>Mark D. Rodriguez
>Sent: Wednesday, October 23, 2002 5:20 PM
>To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
>Subject: Re: OK IBM _ ENOUGH ALREADY with the IBM/Tivoli TSM website -
>
>Prather, Wanda wrote:
>
>>The new IBM/Tivoli Storage Manager pages are now Circular, and have
>been
>>that way for days.
>>
>>We RELY on the web pages to do client downloads.
>>DOES ANYBODY KNOW who we can call to get this mess straigtened out?!?
>>
>>I've had people from Tivoli asking ME how to get to the downloads page
>-
>>THIS IS STUPID AND INCONSIDERATE OF THE CUSTOMERS AND INTERFERES WITH
>THE
>>SALE AND SUPPORT OF THIS PRODUCT.
>>
>>WHY don't you ever ask WHAT YOUR CUSTOMERS NEED BEFORE screwing with
>this
>>stuff?!?
>>
>>
>To All of You,
>
>I have just forwarded your comments on to Michael James.  He is the
>Tivoli Storage Channel Manager for the south-west region.  I am sure he
>will direct these complaints to the appropriate people.  As an IBM
>Business Partner I apologize for this situation and I am using whatever
>influence I have to get this matter resolved.
>
>--
>Regards,
>Mark D. Rodriguez
>President MDR Consulting, Inc.
>
>========================================================================
>=======
>MDR Consulting
>The very best in Technical Training and Consulting.
>IBM Advanced Business Partner
>SAIR Linux and GNU Authorized Center for Education
>IBM Certified Advanced Technical Expert, CATE
>AIX Support and Performance Tuning, RS6000 SP, TSM/ADSM and Linux
>Red Hat Certified Engineer, RHCE
>========================================================================
>=======
>