Advice dealing with the boss for future purchases/upgrades

[bluegreenturtle]

Hi guys -

I'm consulting for a company doing general troubleshooting/setup/network admin/etc and as you know one important part of such a position is planning future tech purchases and an overall strategy for such. The boss is very interested in such stuff and basically set abunch of the company up himself and then hired me to come in and fix it all.

The company will probably be expanding in the future and require purchasing some workstations and a new server.

Here's the issue: in my opinion, the boss is OBSESSED with small details or issues that frankly I think fall under not seeing the forest for the trees. I would like opinions on how to deal with this professionally - including the possibility that I'm totally wrong and I really should be considering all this in purchases. I should note: he's not an IT boss - for all intents I'm the IT manager of the company. In my opinion he has really much more important things to be doing than obsessing over DDR speeds - like running the company.

Example: He is really insistent on quiet PC's - which I agree with - but insists that a new server must have processors that "dissapate no more than 20 watts, Quiet technology SCSI harddiscs, Quiet performance, achieved through large slow fans, sound insulation, Small profile case (such as blades) would be preferred, Advanced southbridge architecture for optimal data transfer speed..."

These are the kinds of things he sends me. An Intel or AMD CPU dissapates about 60 watts, so the only thing left is some sort of VIA C3 or something. I would honestly just rather buy a Dell (or some other standardized) server and have it done with. I recently put in a Dell 2600 Poweredge and thought it quite nice, though it's not silent.

Here's the other thing - he's always going off on me that we HAVE to buy computers that have the "Via 8237 southbridge or better" and small profile cases (like shuttles or the like) with fanless powersupplies. I honestly don't want to be looking at southbridges when I'm speccing a new workstation for some accountant. To me, chosing a computer only because of it's southbridge is like choosing a car because it has a slightly more efficient fuel injection system. It's just not that big of a deal and 2 years down the road you won't give a crap anyway.

I don't want to give the impression that I'm lazy, because I really do put in the work and am willing to do whatever I'm told. But I also don't want an inventory sheet where every little chipset is noted and I have to keep track of non-standardized parts or special cases for certain workstations.

Anyway, comments?

 

[Alptraum]

*FYI = I am not totally sober as I write this, heh. Send me a PM if you want and I'll respond tomorrow if this makes no sense. I have managed IT budgets that range from 10k a year to 80million a year. And have dealt with my fair share of nuts/jackass types"

He is insane. The main thing you want to look for in a corporate type setting is will it get the job done at a good price. Once you get past having some workstations and a server it becomes almost essential to standerdize on something. Even if you lose some speed or something on it. When I have to manage 6,000 workstations and 100 servers for instance, I don't want to worry about the small details. I want them to all be as similiar as possible and just work.

Do you get along with this guy well? If so I would recommend talking to him about this. If you go shuttle type cases that mainly means you will be building the stuff yourself as far as I know. Thats generally no good. Though if its a smaller company you can get by that way.

If you are talking medium to large company the best thing you can do is standardize on somebody. I run a HP/Compaq shop myself (been Compaq for years and then the HP deal...). But Dell is good these days. So if you have already started on their stuff I would stick with it.

As far as the silent server stuff goes = Do you or he see you IT stuff growing over the years? If so forget about it. You will be looking at a room full of noisy servers, noisy dedicated AC stuff and so on. The best you can do is minimize it. But above all stability should be your main concern. Speed is important as well, but stability is more important. Go with somebody that has a proven track record. I have been in situations where if a server goes down it costs roughly $30,000 to $50,000 an hour. Neither myself or my boss cares if we lose %10 or even %20 in speed if we can prevent that. You can take chances on lesser known or proven hardware, but it may cost you. It could work out fine, but in some situations I and most other large scale IT guys I know are not willing to take that chance. Like Via. Their market penetration in the corporate server market from what I have seen = zip. They have had too many issues with their chipsets over the years. Some of their stuff is good, some not so good. So screw them as far as my servers are concerned.

I get nothing but Intel/Sun. And thats nothing against AMD mind you. And now that my vendor (HP/Compaq) is stocking Opteron servers I'll probably order one as a test system to see how it works out. But its certainly not going into production right away.

It will save you so many headaches if you buy from an established vendor and standardize on something. Wether thats Dell, Hp/Compaq, IBM or whoever.

I'll try and sober up for a sec and give some none rambling comments. If talking to him about this is a no go either due to how you get along with him or how well you know him or any other reason here are some other suggestions.

1) Pick what YOU think is best. Then present that in a fashion he will appreciate. Such as "These have the *fill in the blank southbridge*" and then list of some HIGHLY technical details of that chipset that sound really cool. That pacifies/confuses most of this sort of manager.

2) Present him with a TCO summary of your solution versus his. This is the most professional way to handle this. And the more time consuming. Do some research on what you wants versus what he wants if you think his way is not the way to go. If your way is more practical from a cost standpoint that should satisfy him. Of course he may be insane and this will not work.

3) If none of the above (or anything I could supply in a pm tomorrow when I am sober) work you may just have to deal with him and go with his whacky demands. I spent about a year at a company where I had to do that. It was a large multi national and privatly held. Which pretty much meant that the owner had no shareholders or board to keep him in check. He was nuts. In the year I was there we used the majority of our income (probably around %85) from credit card processing to fund his crazy whims. In that year we went into the very high end loudspeaker business, the large ISP business, the music industry and also the large scale web hosting business. It was a NIGHTMARE. And eventually I left because I didn't want to hear "Hey, I need you to fly to Belgium to set up a new office" again. Sure, for the first little while that was fun. But the stress of dealing with him was insane.

If little or none of this makes sense I am sorry for wasting your time Its the wine in me, heh

 

[bob4432]

you could look on the bright side - atleast he is interested in it. some companies i have dealt with do not even have a backup system or do any maintenance. i just give them a release of liability when they don't listen to the suggestions they are paying me to give... it could be worse for you

 

[Wingznut]

Tell him the options... What you recommend and why... And then let him decide what he wants.

If you talk him into something he doesn't think he wants, and then something goes wrong, it is 100% your fault. You will get blamed for anything and everything that doesn't pan out.

 

[WackyDan]

How many client systems are we talking here? How many servers are already in place and are you going to do any consolidation?

Dell doesn't have Blades... Last I remember anyway ->they abandoned they're blade product due to heat issues.

IBM by far has the best blades --> Most dense solution on planet - far denser than HP. They also just annouced their 4-way Zeon blades and they start shipping a Power4 blade later this month (pSeries/RS6000). They both can co-exist in the same chassis. Just keep in mind that you need to populate a blade chassis to break even on cost. The break even point on the IBM's is about 6 to 7 blades installed. You can do local storage on blade or attach via SAN... Up to you.

Take the advice of some of the others here.... Go with IBM for Servers, but any of the big three for the desktops. Less cost of labor to install and you get standardized systems that can come with up to a three year warranty. Even if it's a small shop it makes sense.

 

[nageov3t]

just get a few sun blades and take the fans out of them. by the time the CPU melts, you should be in Mexico

 

[Davegod]

read the BOFH columns on www.theregister.co.uk

 

[Snoop]

Via 8237 southbridge or better

ROFLMAO, we neeeeeeeeddddd the Via Southbridge. Where does he get his tech info from? I have dealt with some convoluted rational when it comes to IT managers, but NEVER have I heard things like we need a certain southbridge or even worse the servers need to be using cpu's wit < 20 watts. Maybe you can explain yourself then recommend that he come to Anandtech, Aceshardware, or some other sufficiently knowledgeable site/forum where he can get a little better understanding of PC technology.
LOL, we need Via southbridges or nothing at all !!!!!!

 

[Fern]

I'm a CPA and the owner of a small accounting company. Whereas I used to hire IT companies to acquire/maintain/setup computer systems, I do it myself now. I order the parts and build the pc's myself.

It sounds like this guy is, at least somewhat similar in that he is trying to learn about components and performance of his office pc's.

The following are some of my experiences which (along with gaming) led me to have a wicked interest in PC's:

- why does it take 2 days and over a thousand $ to install Windows98 on new computer?
BS answer: was because win98 cannot run a cpu higher than 2mhz. Needs a special patch from MS etc. (I have since built and installed several pc with win98 all faster than 2mhz with no problem)

-why do my pc's have to be transported to your office and be off-line for two days to change/upgrade HD's
BS answer: had to take back to my shop with special high speed thingy to transfer data. Costs, hundreds of $'s (I now have Norton ghost and do the same in less than a hour, including install of new HD)

- Got a quote for a $5k+ server and network setup. I ask for details on the server components- pc100 ram etc. Huh? (this was when pc2700 was coming out!) I could build something similar from old boxes thrown out by Charity thrift shops.


I could go on but you get the drift.

I might also add that in many bus. meetings IT guys disagree with each other to such an extent it borders on being silly. So, one gets many differing opinions from IT people. Hence, to feel secure you take it upon yourself to learn something about pc's.

So, I suggest you consider:

1. As part of the consulting process, you go through all the why's of the components. An educational process for him, that is "on the clock" (he pays for your time), or

2. You build it the way he wants and go with legal waver mentioned above.

Hope it works out well

 

[jose]

He's an Idiot, this is the worse type of customer to work for. Make your own decisions/recomendations & have him sign off on everything that "He" recomends that way it's his fault when problems arise. He either respects your recomendations or not , what are his qualifications ? computer science/engineer ?

I had a customer that took advice from an accountant to leave a Unix system and purchase 60 workstations + addls windows servers + a win based software solution.
Well after everything went to crap and having spent $120,000.00 of tax payer dollars came back to Unix... The same accountant cost another mucipality $560K down the drain.

I wonder how a person like that deals w/ his physcian ? "Hey doc I'm suffering from xxxxx, so give me some of that new drug I saw on TV. lol

Good Luck,

Regards,
Jose

 

[bluegreenturtle]

THANKS guys, you have some good advice!!

Alptraum, you're totally coherent, and I think your thinking actually sums up the way I'm feeling right now the best.

Wingznut, you make a small but incredibly important point that can be applied to nearly any situation.

Others, you all make good points.

I don't want to get blades - if you don't need the room for rackmount gear I don't see a reason for paying the premium and then having the difficulty and lack of expansion ability/inability to use common parts.

So, actually, this guy is a genius, but he might be insane. Apparently I am only one of a long line of IT consultants that have eventually quit. He's never fired a soul - they usually just hand in their keys because they can't deal with him. The thing about him dealing with his doctor...he IS a doctor - this is a medical research company developing new drugs regarding heart attacks and blood flow. He's incredibly intelligent, but he just goes off on things when they aren't working the way he wants. There are 15 new programs installed on his computer everytime I come in. They're running an Exchange server that, right now, is servicing 7 people. When I saw that, I said "ok...but you know you really could have done this in a simpler way..." He is convinced that Microsoft is very evil and is constantly using everything under the sun that is an other product (openoffice, mozilla, etc, and much more esoteric than that). I finally convinced him that if he's going to go to the trouble of running Exchange, please please just use the Outlook client so the rest of the company can calendar share with you. Also one of the funky email programs he was using (I forget which one) wasn't sending "delete" to the exchange server so it had 10,000 emails stuck on it...I installed outlook and voila, the server started working again.

Anyway, the basic thing I'm trying to get through to him is that yes, he's very smart, but there are some other very smart people out there, and just because software doesn't work the way YOU think it should work doesn't mean that they designed it that way because they're idiots - often they had very good reasons for what they did.

The Southbridge thing is the most annoying because he brings it up everytime. WE HAVE TO GET THE VIA SOUTHBRIDGE!!!! I've had nothing but problems with VIA products in the past, too, and I don't want their crap in the systems that I have to maintain. I'm a pretty cost concious consultant - if it looks like it will take me a while to fix something I just buy a new one so they aren't out the dough and still stuck with an old part or system.

So anyway, to sum up, THANKS guys. I was hoping to get some comments like this. The reason I'm sticking with these folks is 1)I think their products will save lives 2)The use of funky and changing things will allow me to learn a few things on the job 3)They've told me they're really impressed with me and when the next research grant comes in (if it does) they would like to add me to staff either half time or full, my choice. I think he offered me $40,000 a year for half time, and while I know that isn't the riches of midas, and is less than I charge now hourly, it would be assured income that would cover me, and I would still only be committed 20 hours a week. That's worth something because though I have regular clients, I never really know how a month's going to turn out, and sometimes I get a little worried and have to go out and hustle some new business - that's getting old.

 

[bluegreenturtle]

So this actually turned out pretty well.

He and I had a discussion about priorities and the reality of SCSI dba, etc. I showed him some of those Dell Optiplexes, both in full and small form factor, and that they're basically silent, but easy to work with because you know what the parts are. He still doesn't seem to get some things, but basically I told him point blank to lay off reading Tom's Hardware and the like, start running the damn company and make some money, and leave the technical details to me. He laughed and agreed. Follow through in the future may not be a reality, but at least he's listening and not blowing it all off.

Thanks again.

 

[InlineFive]

Wow, he got his info from Tom's Hardware? I pity you...

Unfortunately all the feeble advice I could give would be driven over by the posts from serious consultants above so I won't bother.

-Por