Since probably the most important function of a System Programmer is to
provide a stable Operating System platform for production applications
(typically requiring a number of ISV products), and to do this while
juggling software release changes, software maintenance, and changes in
hardware, it is not surprising that system programmers (and enlightened
managers) would be irked at anything that makes that task more
difficult, and especially at any product whose license key management
introduces additional points of failure into the process.
If a hard failure occurs in a critical ISV product because of a bad
license key, this potentially affects many application, large numbers of
end users, and costs the company real money. It makes no difference
whether the outage is caused by an ISV failure to supply correct keys or
by some error on our part in the installation process, the effect on the
end user is equally bad.
Particularly in the case of processor upgrades, or in DR, there is no
reliable way for us to verify that new keys from the vendors are correct
and correctly installed until we are running on the new processor. If
they aren't and a hard failure results, there is a high likelihood that
this failure will be seen in some way by the end users, even if the
vendor key support is 24x7.
While I can understand the vendors concerns, my goal is to focus on our
own system reliability and the needs of our end users; and any hard
failures in ISV products are an enemy of that goal.
Eric N. Bielefeld wrote:
...
I think its interesting that so many sysprogs on the list hate keys so
much. I think a lot of it is just poor business practices when you can't
get a key in time. Yes, there are a few vendors who are only available
9-5 M-F, which could be a problem in a real disaster, but most of the
major ones can respond 24 by 7.
Eric Bielefeld
Sr. z/OS Systems Programmer
Lands End
Dodgeville, Wisconsin
414-475-7434
...
--
Joel C. Ewing, Fort Smith, AR [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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