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fdeckert Rank: Green Belt 110 posts since
Jul 2, 2008
Currently Being Moderated

Jan 27, 2009 6:03 AM

Buying support tickets on zenoss core ?

Hi

We are currently running zenoss core in my company, and we had a project to move to the enterprise edition. Due to the economic situation, this budget was frozen.

I know Zenoss Inc is only providing direct support on the enterprise edition.

Now, I'm wondering if many core users would be ready to buy support tickets for the core edition ? If many of us raise interest, maybe Zenoss Inc would change its policy.

I would say it is in Zenoss Inc interest to help core users get the best out of Zenoss, because when the economic situation finally improves it may move them to the enterprise edition.

Maybe Matt Ray would be OK to start a poll on the suject ?

Regards
--
Florian Deckert
SopraGroup - France
  • jcurry ZenossMaster 1,021 posts since
    Apr 15, 2008
    Currently Being Moderated
    1. Jan 27, 2009 8:27 AM (in response to fdeckert)
    RE: Buying support tickets on zenoss core ?
    If Zenoss have the bandwidth to support "paying core users" that would be good - but I don't see how that could really differ from one of the existing chargeable offerings? Presumably you are thinking of something far less expensive than the current starting point which looks like Professional that starts at a minimum of 100 devices at $100 / device = $10,000 starting point??

    What are you REALLY looking for? Is it just problem determination / bug fixing?

    Is there a Zenoss business partner that might offer this service, perhaps more locally? Come to that, does Zenoss really HAVE a business partner association that offers PD, bug resolution, consultancy, education - especially when you got outside the US???

    Cheers,
    Jane
  • jmp242 ZenossMaster 4,060 posts since
    Mar 7, 2007
    Currently Being Moderated
    2. Jan 27, 2009 8:27 AM (in response to jcurry)
    Buying support tickets on zenoss core ?
    Well, I'd also suggest that there might be third party companies
    interested in this - I mean, core is Open Source, so they could
    potentially find and fix bugs (and maybe would even submit patches
    upstream?). Not to mention, at least Skills First UK (jcurry) seems to
    have pretty in depth knowledge of the Event system per the paper she
    posted recently.

    Unfortunately, I don't actually know of any US companies besides Zenoss
    offering consulting etc, but it seems like it'd be an option if Zenoss,
    Inc doesn't want to do so for whatever reason on Core.
    --
    James Pulver
    Information Technology Area Supervisor
    LEPP Computer Group
    Cornell University



    fdeckert wrote, On 1/27/2009 6:03 AM:

     

     

    Hi

    We are currently running zenoss core in my company, and we had a project to move to the enterprise edition. Due to the economic situation, this budget was frozen.

    I know Zenoss Inc is only providing direct support on the enterprise edition.

    Now, I'm wondering if many core users would be ready to buy support tickets for the core edition ? If many of us raise interest, maybe Zenoss Inc would change its policy.

    I would say it is in Zenoss Inc interest to help core users get the best out of Zenoss, because when the economic situation finally improves it may move them to the enterprise edition.

    Maybe Matt Ray would be OK to start a poll on the suject ?

    Regards
    --
    Florian Deckert
    SopraGroup - France







    _______________________________________________
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    zenoss-users@zenoss.org
    http://lists.zenoss.org/mailman/listinfo/zenoss-users

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    zenoss-users@zenoss.org
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  • jmp242 ZenossMaster 4,060 posts since
    Mar 7, 2007
    Currently Being Moderated
    3. Jan 27, 2009 8:41 AM (in response to jmp242)
    Buying support tickets on zenoss core ?
    Yes, I do think this is something Zenoss ought to cultivate with local
    partners or something. I'm guessing most people who can afford to pay
    $10,000 a year or more are already. That doesn't mean there wouldn't be
    a market for people who want support for the OSS product, presumably at
    something less than that cost.

    The big question, me not being a business person, is could anyone
    actually make money supporting something like Zenoss for less than that
    a year? I have to wonder, and I'd expect it would have to be something
    like an hourly rate to work financially. Maybe per incident, but that'd
    be hard to guess if the incident is going to be a 1 hour custom command,
    or an almost endless track through source code to find a bug...

    I had been hoping more commercial interest might be springing up around
    Zenpacks as well, but I guess not yet.

    I've also found that a lot of posts are for what could be offered as
    custom development, but maybe via something more like guru.com than a
    support contract.
    --
    James Pulver
    Information Technology Area Supervisor
    LEPP Computer Group
    Cornell University



    jcurry wrote, On 1/27/2009 8:27 AM:

     

     

    If Zenoss have the bandwidth to support "paying core users" that would be good - but I don't see how that could really differ from one of the existing chargeable offerings? Presumably you are thinking of something far less expensive than the current starting point which looks like Professional that starts at a minimum of 100 devices at 100 / device = 10,000 starting point??

    What are you REALLY looking for? Is it just problem determination / bug fixing?

    Is there a Zenoss business partner that might offer this service, perhaps more locally? Come to that, does Zenoss really HAVE a business partner association that offers PD, bug resolution, consultancy, education - especially when you got outside the US???

    Cheers,
    Jane







    _______________________________________________
    zenoss-users mailing list
    zenoss-users@zenoss.org
    http://lists.zenoss.org/mailman/listinfo/zenoss-users

    _______________________________________________
    zenoss-users mailing list
    zenoss-users@zenoss.org
    http://lists.zenoss.org/mailman/listinfo/zenoss-users
  • niels2000 Rank: White Belt 68 posts since
    Sep 4, 2008
    Currently Being Moderated
    4. Jan 27, 2009 9:03 AM (in response to jmp242)
    RE: Buying support tickets on zenoss core ?
    I can hardly speak for anyone else, but I can say that for our company, we would appreciate it if there was a price point somewhere between the current core cost and the entry point for the professional version.

    In other words, I think I would find it much easier to convince my boss to pay for support tickets and possibly minor custom code bits on a per-case basis than it will be to convince him to commit to a $10,000/year contract.

    I do understand why Zenoss, Inc may not be inclined to offer such services, but if they were available from a third-party OS support group, or even individual, it might actually make it much more likely that we would eventually upgrade to one of the "big" licenses.

    Incidentally, perhaps something along these lines is already available? Anyone have any experience with submitting Zenoss questions to services such as Expert-exchange or similar that they can recommend?
  • jmp242 ZenossMaster 4,060 posts since
    Mar 7, 2007
    Currently Being Moderated
    5. Jan 27, 2009 9:12 AM (in response to niels2000)
    Buying support tickets on zenoss core ?
    I tried Experts Exchange, but Zenoss is still pretty niche (and actually
    overall Experts Exchange seemed to not really have expert answers to non
    coding questions very often) or something, as I think all the Zenoss
    experts or even knowledgeable users are reading this forum, so you'll
    get the best answers possible here.

    For pay for help, I did find a few people on guru.com who claim to know
    Zenoss, so maybe there (or another similar site) is a place where Zenoss
    coders (for hire?) may want to go.
    --
    James Pulver
    Information Technology Area Supervisor
    LEPP Computer Group
    Cornell University



    niels2000 wrote, On 1/27/2009 9:03 AM:

     

     

    I can hardly speak for anyone else, but I can say that for our company, we would appreciate it if there was a price point somewhere between the current core cost and the entry point for the professional version.

    In other words, I think I would find it much easier to convince my boss to pay for support tickets and possibly minor custom code bits on a per-case basis than it will be to convince him to commit to a 10,000/year contract.

    I do understand why Zenoss, Inc may not be inclined to offer such services, but if they were available from a third-party OS support group, or even individual, it might actually make it much more likely that we would eventually upgrade to one of the "big" licenses.

    Incidentally, perhaps something along these lines is already available? Anyone have any experience with submitting Zenoss questions to services such as Expert-exchange or similar that they can recommend?







    _______________________________________________
    zenoss-users mailing list
    zenoss-users@zenoss.org
    http://lists.zenoss.org/mailman/listinfo/zenoss-users

    _______________________________________________
    zenoss-users mailing list
    zenoss-users@zenoss.org
    http://lists.zenoss.org/mailman/listinfo/zenoss-users
  • Matt Ray Rank: Zen Master 2,484 posts since
    Apr 5, 2008
    Currently Being Moderated
    7. Jan 27, 2009 7:19 PM (in response to fdeckert)
    Buying support tickets on zenoss core ?
    I think one of the missing parts of the thread is which ticket do you
    need fixed? Part of my job is to act as the voice of the Community,
    so I definitely follow up on high-visibility tickets in the Community
    and advocate for them in our defect review. So if there is a defect
    that is particularly egregious, make sure it's got a good write-up and
    get my attention and I'll speak up for it. As far as purchasing
    individual tickets, it's not something we've really considered, since
    we try to prioritize everything based on the caliber of the ticket
    rather than the originator.

    As far as a third-party ecosystem, it's something we'd love to foster,
    it just takes awhile. I have a small list of people I check with to
    do Core professional services work from time to time, including custom
    ZenPacks. If you're interested in providing or using these services,
    I try to play the match-maker.

    Thanks,
    Matt Ray
    Zenoss Community Manager
    community.zenoss.com
    mray@zenoss.com

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  • jcurry ZenossMaster 1,021 posts since
    Apr 15, 2008
    Currently Being Moderated
    8. Jan 28, 2009 7:25 AM (in response to Matt Ray)
    RE: Buying support tickets on zenoss core ?
    To return to one of your "ticket requests"

     

     

    We have some nagging issues we would be ready to pay for to get them fixed (why is zenjmx pack installation crashing with "AttributeError: sourcetype", why can't a zenmanager add a log to an event ...)



    Have you looked at the access you get from

     

     

    here is a roll-based system right now. Check out:

    http://localhost:8080/zport/manage_access

    (Substitute your zenoss hostname/ip for localhost).



    Read more in http://forums.zenoss.com/viewtopic.php?p=30581#30581


    I have played around with this and find that by adding the ManageEvents permission to the ZenUser role (you could just as well do it for Zen Manager) then any user with that role can add comments to the Log tab of a detailed event. Is that what you want??

    There are lots of other permutations to do with Event Views versus looking at events from the Device hierarchy, and what roles you have on Administered Objects - but I will make that a separate append rather than hijacking your "buying support on tickets" thread.

    Cheers,
    Jane
  • Gabe Rank: Green Belt 94 posts since
    Jun 29, 2008
    Currently Being Moderated
    10. Jan 29, 2009 4:54 AM (in response to fdeckert)
    RE: Buying support tickets on zenoss core ?
    yeah i also think zenoss should start to thinking about more hybrid business models, heavy license cost is something companies want to avoid and that is key for zenoss success. Specially if you have a high volume of devices on a zenoss core install you can save alot of money but still you want support zenoss financially in some other way.

    maybe design some kind of developer support agreement with soft best efforts something blabla

    many zenoss core admins maybe would like to see a new feature like i.e netflow or Layer-2 topology cdp discovery.
    what if zenoss could manage to calculate how much money would be needed to get the resources to set it up. then companies or admins could sorta "donate" for the cause and zenoss could gather up a pile of money for that to pay for the development time needed for that.
    still keeping it all open source ofcourse.
  • jcurry ZenossMaster 1,021 posts since
    Apr 15, 2008
    Currently Being Moderated
    11. Feb 3, 2009 5:59 AM (in response to Gabe)
    RE: Buying support tickets on zenoss core ?
    Continuing on the thread of Florian's requirement for fine-tuning user roles, I have added a separate append on this - http://forums.zenoss.com/viewtopic.php?p=30831#30831

    I have built a short paper on Crafting Zenoss Core users for events and zProperties - available at http://www.zenoss.com/Members/jcurry/users_events_zproperties_paper.pdf/view

    Comments welcome please!

    Cheers,
    Jane
    jane.curry@skills-1st.co.uk
  • Matt Ray Rank: Zen Master 2,484 posts since
    Apr 5, 2008
    Currently Being Moderated
    13. Feb 7, 2009 9:31 PM (in response to fdeckert)
    Buying support tickets on zenoss core ?
    "Buying" a ticket wouldn't have raised the priority in this case,
    since the ticket in question is a Medium. Tickets get reviewed by
    order of severity in a pair of weekly meetings. We review all the new
    Blockers for Core and Enterprise, then the Criticals, then the Mediums
    and so on. We average about 40 tickets a meeting and haven't made a
    lot of progress on the Mediums and the Lows haven't been touched.
    Once a ticket has been reviewed it gets either closed (duplicates,
    already fixed, not reproducible, etc.) or it goes into the backlog for
    the relevant release (current maintenance 2.3.X or next release).
    Developers juggle their time between working on features for the next
    release, bugs against the maintenance release and the next major
    release. If you look at the release notes most all the tickets that
    get closed are Blockers and Highs and we don't ship with any of those
    open against the release. 2.3.3 is close to being released, 2.4 is
    scheduled for 2nd quarter of the year.

    We're altering the format of the review to raise the priority of
    tickets with patches attached. I wrote myself a note on Friday to
    bring up your tickets in the next review.

    Thanks,
    Matt Ray
    Zenoss Community Manager
    community.zenoss.com
    mray@zenoss.com

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  • HummerBoy Rank: Green Belt 116 posts since
    Dec 17, 2008
    Currently Being Moderated
    14. Feb 20, 2009 12:16 AM (in response to Matt Ray)
    RE: Buying support tickets on zenoss core ?
    We have the same budget freeze issue. Waiting for funds so we can get Enterprise, if ever.
    People keep saying that the entry point is 100 devices. What if you have over 500 like I have? That is after taking the other 500 out that 'didn't really need monitoring'. That is US$50k, or US$100k for the lot, not US$10k. Then you make the currency conversion for us poor people across the Pacific and it becomes AUS$77k to start, and that is per year, THEN we have to pay for the tech to fly to Australia AND pay for accommodation. Our daily support is going to be remote, not on-site. For that money we would want a dedicated tech that is on call 24 hours a day on a toll free line.
    Why not something like a US$10k option that helps you setup Core and explain how it works. What about another option that gives the 'client' a number of remote support requests per year like most other software companies do? Maybe a combination of the two?
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