Second Tier Vendors

Second tier software vendors are those who aren't one of the big, household names. They don't advertise on TV, but they're selling perfectly acceptable products - often very good ones - & they're generally trying really hard to become one of the big guys. That means, if you're careful, you can get a great product & excellent support for a very attractive price. There are dangers, of course. Some go under, but that happens even with the big guys. Look at what Symantec did with their firewall hardware in June 2006. Dropped it cold & the customer can go to hell.

Another disadvantage is that it's tough to sell a high profile system, such as email, to the suits if they've never heard of it. Everyone has heard of the big 3 of email (Microsoft, Lotus, Novell) although Novell's perceived future isn't as good as it could be. (I've struggled to keep Novell for years. Their marketing department hasn't helped a lick. They should be shot!)

It's not just the suits. I'm making extensive changes to our network, a great time to put in new systems, but my VARs (Value Added Reseller, sells me hardware, software & engineering support) don't seem to know anyone except the big names, either.
Backup: Symantec's Veritas or CA's ArcServe. (Acronis? Why not?)
Antivirus: Symantec or McAfee - one mentioned TrendMicro. No Sophos?
Firewall: Cisco, maybe SonicWall (WatchGuard, Fortigate?)

I hate Symantec & CA. They’re big companies who have grown far too big. They’re more interested in running me through paperwork games than letting purchase the software & get on with the job at hand. Their default tech support generally sucks, is hard to get to & hampered by language or draconian rules. Their better grades of support are generall too expensive for small companies. I don't recall what Symantec wanted for their Platinum AV support, but I do recall I've never been able to afford it. Since their AV product now sucks, I've gone to Sophos. They're small enough to try harder, support their customers 24x7 & send me licensing along with the purchase. No hoops to jump through!

I bought a Fortigate FW rather than a Cisco (I also looked at SonicWall & WatchGuard), but I have limited time & experience to pick out all my own products. I need to know they work in the field. Who can better tell me than my VAR? I'm looking at 3 different VARs since they mostly don't want to look at new solutions, but only at the ‘proven’, big name companies.

What's on the user's PC?

I started a new job and one of the toughest challanges has been determining what applications the users have on their PCs. The users don't seem to know. A printed form with check boxes for the main, standard applications and blanks for others comes back mostly empty. How can a person use their PC all day and not know what applications they use?

One issue seems to be understanding what an application is. They can't tell the difference between a web portal and an installed program. They can't tell when one program calls on another. Worst of all, they don't know the difference between a business application and something they or their predecessor installed for fun or to test.

Much of the blame for their ignorance lies in a complete lack of policies and policing of the system. No one has ever taught them what a business application is or what unwanted software, such as the Weather Bug or an IM client is. Some of these PCs are 7 years old and they've never been cleaned between users. More RAM was added, the OS upgraded and that was all.

Cleaning up a mess like this isn't something that can be done quickly. Software policy has to come from the top and one of the worst abusers is one of the company owners. Training that person is the priority. Cleaning up systems properly and educating users as they get new or recycled PCs is also a big part, but unless upper management toes the same line, abuses will happen again and be harder to stop without causing resentment.