Can I put together a system myself
by Donato M. Rondinelli
on
Aug 13, 2009 at 2:01:26 pm
I talked to a re-seller yesterday. They quoted me the price for the hardware plus $8k for install/training/consulting. Can I buy the gear myself & install it? I put together our 3 FCP systems, is this much more difficult than that? Our IT dept has an account with Apple Corporate & I'm sure they could assist me, but they don't have a media background so it would all be on my shoulders. I would also have to integrate this with our SAN.
Should I attempt it or fork over the cash?
Thanks,
-dMR
Re: Can I put together a system myself by Matt Bodman on Aug 16, 2009 at 2:28:10 pm
If I were you (and I wish I was, because you have a very cool sounding name), I would do the install myself but pay for the training. I am just coming out of doing my first (and possibly only) FCS install and I have loved the challenge. I have done a lot of integration and this was pretty difficult in some areas.
If I had an endless budget, I would still probably opt to do it myself. The reason is that a product like FCS is extremely flexible. If someone else installs it for you, they will ask you a bunch of questions about how you need it to work and you will have to do your best to predict how you might use the system when it gets switched on. However, you have never used it, you don't really understand what it can do etc.
I guarantee the way your company uses FCS will change rapidly as everyone gets to know how to use it. You will start with one config but then continually fine tune it to perfectly suit your workflow. Then you'll want to make changes to the configuration and at that point, you'll probably wish you did the install yourself, so that you're familiar with the backend. Otherwise, you'll be calling the installers again and having to wait and pay for them to make the changes, some of which could be pretty simple once you know how it all works. If you have a tech brain and you enjoy figuring out logic - go for it.
Re: Can I put together a system myself by Donato M. Rondinelli on Aug 16, 2009 at 8:42:24 pm
Hey thanks. Good idea about knowing the back end. That's probably something I should have knowledge of. My IT guys can purchase & install the server so all I'd have to worry about is FCS. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't in over my head, but it sound like it something I could figure out. I use lynda.com for all my training & I asked them to look into doing something for FCS. That would be sweet. Otherwise I'll work something out with my reseller. Thanks again.
-dMR
Re: Can I put together a system myself by Victor Perez on Aug 17, 2009 at 6:35:32 pm
We just installed FCServer and are in the beginning stages of implementing it in our workflow. We had help from our reseller with the install and workflow suggestions as well as performing some of the work ourselves. It wasn't easy, but the additional help from our reseller helped smooth out the edges.
