>> On Tue, 23 Jun 2009 10:30:51 -0400, Wanda Prather <wprather AT JASI DOT COM> 
>> said:


> But It's very frustrating for me, because TSM marketing materials
> are very poor, IMHO, and don't explain well what the impact of TSM's
> features will be on the user's long-term management and support
> costs.  IBM"s sales force, in many cases that I've seen, have very
> poor understanding of TSM and can't explain it well, and have no
> training whatever in the differences between TSM and Commvault.


Amen, sister.  And here's another echo of the same tune.  I was asking
a central IT shop why they hadn't even discussed the TSM possibility
with me as they were contemplating Sharepoint backups.  Their comment:


> Honestly, we get much of our product info from the product teams and
> sales reps at MS conferences.  Gold partners and such.  IBM is
> *never* represented well or even mentioned as a major player in the
> MS backup scene, so it is overlooked.  So perhaps the blame should
> be placed with IBM for not doing a better job of marketing to MS
> technical folks at MS technical conferences and trade shows.

> For SharePoint there are a few vendors that are frequently mentioned
> by presenters and folks on the product teams.  These vendors are
> highly visible and reach out to potential business in the SharePoint
> arena.  Never heard TSM mentioned.  Never noticed them at the shows.
> Never been reached out to by them.  So other than you providing a
> TSM service on campus, there's been no trail of breadcrumbs anywhere
> leading us towards TSM as a viable alternative to things like
> AvePoint and CommVault...

> I knew we could backup raw data with TSM, but quick, granular
> restore at the document level in SharePoint??  If so, I had no idea
> - due in large part to their lack of marketing to 'my crowd'.  So
> nothing personal against you or your service at all.




- Allen S. Rout