Why Hyperconverged For Small Business
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@woodbutcher said in Why Hyperconverged For Small Business:
Why three? The "MSP" is trying to force these guys to purchase a solution from Scale Computing. As I understand it, they require three hosts. In any case, I feel this MSP is providing a solution that the MSP wants and is ignoring any and all business needs of their customer.
THat's because it isn't an MSP, that's a VAR. Scale is great, I mean truly fantastic. But doesn't apply to anything you are describing.
So the REAL question is, WHY do you have someone allowed to talk to your staff, who is lying about being an MSP, and is intentionally proposing solutions that have no benefit to your company?
This isn't just totally horrible business practice, it's also a security issue.
ANY true MSP would start with "what are your requirements" and then work out "how we best meet your needs." From your description, none of that has been done yet. Which means, by definition, no IT work has been done. The people claiming to be an MSP are obviously (must be, there's no way around it) sales people, not IT people.
THey are representing the vendor, not representing you. That defines them as sales people. IT by definition represents the business (you.) So you know that they aren't IT. The business knows that they aren't IT. ITs job would be to protect the business from corrupt sales people trying to trick them, not to be the ones tricking them.
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@woodbutcher said in Why Hyperconverged For Small Business:
Some of these sales-only MSP organizations
You can combat this practice by not allowing themselves to claim to be an MSP. I do this all the time "Our MSP.." Stop, you admitted they aren't an MSP, call them a VAR.
It helps, a lot. Forcing people to stop repeating a lie, even if it is just a word, changes how the brain works. It's easy to act like someone claiming to be an MSP should be listened to. It's hard to act like a greasy sales person should be giving advice. Allowing your own team to repeat the word MSP when you know they aren't an MSP (true MSP doesn't sell, VARs sell, it's black and white) empowers them to trick your staff.
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@woodbutcher said in Why Hyperconverged For Small Business:
They are just as bad at SQL licensing telling us you only need 2 cores to license a VM.
ACtually taht part is generally correct.
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@woodbutcher said in Why Hyperconverged For Small Business:
Unfortunately I was hired on after this process started and now have to try and unwind this mess before the purchase goes through. I worry I may be too late though.
Easy to unwind. It's an ethics breach and any contract with them would be in bad faith. Offer to let them just walk away before you sue.
As they are sales people claiming to be IT, you have zero responsibility to follow through in paying for any solution that they sold you under that false pretense.
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@woodbutcher said in Why Hyperconverged For Small Business:
I agree financially and technically, the single host approach is what makes sense here. I just have to put in the work to convince my new team that they have been fed a bunch of crap.
My entire YouTube channel is dedicated to that information.
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I thought it was a minimum of 4 cores, sold in 2 core packs.
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@woodbutcher said in Why Hyperconverged For Small Business:
I thought it was a minimum of 4 cores, sold in 2 core packs.
You are correct. With 2019 it is now four minimum...
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And for real, my book covers a lot of this stuff, too. Exactly this stuff.
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Mind if I ask what your team is?
Are you in IT in your company?
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This one is super important...
https://smbitjournal.com/2016/06/buyers-and-sellers-agents-in-it/
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Also important for your team to grok...
https://smbitjournal.com/2017/07/the-social-contract-of-sales/
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@dashrender said in Why Hyperconverged For Small Business:
Mind if I ask what your team is?
Are you in IT in your company?I am the new internal IT guy for the company being screwed. We are a small manufacturing company. The previous IT guy was not really an IT guy and never took an interest in his job. I think the VAR identified this pretty quickly and are trying to one-up themselves with what they can get away with.
I'm no slouch but I am also not an IT expert. My background is mostly software development and manufacturing automation but also have experience with things like ERP and MES. Most jobs I take are with small companies and I end up doing or assisting with a lot of the IT work.
My frustration is that I don't even do this full time and can't find a single drop of value this VAR is adding even though they claim to be experts at this.
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Thanks for all the links. I've got some homework to do for sure and appreciate the guidance.
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Sounds like no one at the company is head of IT - well, the owner is of course, but he's just shuffed it off onto this VAR.
If the company really wants to do IT right and be a business, this is something they need some redirection in - perhaps you can fully step into the role, though it would require a frank discussion with owners/management so they understand the situation, otherwise you might be just fighting against management's wises and everyone just ends up unhappy.
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@woodbutcher said in Why Hyperconverged For Small Business:
The previous IT guy was not really an IT guy and never took an interest in his job. I think the VAR identified this pretty quickly and are trying to one-up themselves with what they can get away with.
It's a standard model. "Fake" IT guy (or lazy, over his head, politically screwed, fill in the blank here) finds a sales guy that is willing to do something that kind of looks like his job for him, for "free" and gets the company to pay for it. The company gets insanely screwed while the VAR makes loads of money for being unethical, and the "IT guy" gets away without having to do the job he is being paid for. So the company pays double for something they aren't getting at all (IT guidance and protection.)
The tiniest audit or thought from management catches this. It's impossible hide. But it exposes how often CEOs take zero interest in IT and totally ignore it.
