On Tue, Sep 1, 2009 at 7:01 PM, Mehmet Akcin <mehmet@akcin.net> wrote:

Hey,

Let's say you want to pick a server vendor and you don't necessarily want to buy from one country and ship it to 50 different locations but instead buy them locally in each country, and also have local parties provide support.

If you were to compare brands such as Dell, IBM, HP, Supermicro (or any other vendor?) which one you would recommend for this kind of approach?

The server specs are fairly standard. Nothing extraordinary.. and expected support isn't also 7/24/365 but a decent next day -5 hours M-F type of deal..

IMHO, resellers are your friend. Companies like CDW and Dimension Data provide excellent programs that maximize your spend internationally and reduce headaches in purchasing and shipping. Trying to buy country to country will almost for sure cost you far more than dealing with an international reseller. If I had to make a hardware purchase based on requirements I'd obviously make the approach requirements and cost based and work from there managing trade-offs. I have excellent experience with IBM and HP internationally. I can't speak for any others. Local service is generally not an issue with larger vendors like HP, Cisco, Juniper, IBM, et. Al. Where a vendor does not have their own in-house operation they usually have a partner that provides them a white-label service that is indistinguishable from their own for the most part. There are a few gotchas dealing with resellers and international. Whatever money you leave on the table in terms of discounts (hardware, software, and support) the reseller is going to get. Handling fees are also another large gotcha. Paying a 5% across the board handling fee on a 1M$ order equates to a $50,000 fee for managing the shipment of a pallet. All of those fees are negotiable on an order by order basis. Best, -M< -- Martin Hannigan martin@theicelandguy.com p: +16178216079 Power, Network, and Costs Consulting for Iceland Datacenters and Occupants