Thanks, Jonathan. I think I have some handle on some of that. I know pretty much everything depends on the AS/400 (iSeries) as our entire operation runs off that. After that it's somewhat up in the air. I've found a downloadable template that I'll take a look at.
From: Raper, Jonathan - Eagle [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, September 29, 2010 4:18 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: Consultants "I'm not sure what my requirements are.... which is why I want to hire a consultant/consulting engineer to help me figure out what my needs are" My $0.02....Forget hiring a consultant for now. If youre dead set on getting a consultant, feel free to email me off-list. My rates are reasonable. You need to sit down with the business owners and explain: These are our applications: App1 App2 App3 These are our data sets: Dataset1 Dataset2 Dataset3 Then you need to ask the questions of the business owners/department heads for each application/dataset: What happens to the business if this specific app/dataset is unavailable for (as an example): 1 hour 4 hours 1 day 2 days 3 days 1 week 2 weeks 1 month You also need to list weaknesses and vulnerabilities of your network/data/applications/etc, which may alter the perspective of your business owners (particularly for anything that may be unique to your environment). Then ask, "What does it cost the business per hour/day/week in terms of lost revenue or productivity dollars if this application/dataset is unavailable?" This gives you a framework within which you can come up with a reasonable budget for your solution. THEN, MAYBE it will be time for you to hire a consultant. But don't take my word for it... http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=information+systems+business+impact+analysis+templa te Jonathan L. Raper, A+, MCSA, MCSE Technology Coordinator Eagle Physicians & Associates, PA [email protected] www.eaglemds.com -----Original Message----- From: John Aldrich [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, September 29, 2010 3:16 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: Consultants Exactly. I'm not sure what my requirements are. I have a few ideas... some things that folks have asked in my numerous posts, I have no idea, which is why I want to hire a consultant/consulting engineer to help me figure out what my needs are and then, perhaps, help me evaluate some of the proposals that I have already gathered. :-) I mean, I know I have "X" amount data currently, and that probably doesn't change a whole lot. I know that among the Desktop PCs I have "Y" amount of data in the current user profile, most of which probably doesn't change a lot (other than PST files...*shudder*) and I know that I'd like to migrate most of the "Y" data to the network, for D/R purposes. I also want to look at bringing email in-house. According to the manufacturer, you should have "Z" amount of disk space for the mail store. That brings me up to in the neighborhood of 1.5 to 2 terabytes of disk space needed. What's the best option to have that much disk space and ensure the domain is available, along with the data, etc in case of a disaster... I haven't a clue. As someone else pointed out, simply deploying a SAN is not going to save my butt in case of a disaster. It might help prevent data loss, but if the whole facility is destroyed, a SAN isn't going to save my bacon. :-) I need a good D/R consultant to help me with all these questions. :-) From: Gary Slinger [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, September 29, 2010 2:58 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: Consultants Generally, if you know what you want and you just need to bounce some ideas around, I'd give you my guys time for free to tweak the end solution, with the belief that we'd be doing the implementation. If you wanted them to actually start from a blank slate, do a requirements gathering, and design a solution for you, we'd want to charge you for that, as the design and requirements would be deliverables in their own right that you might or might not use to procure an implementation solution from us. (And I'm hardware agnostic. I only care about Services). What you have below, "give them your needs", implies the first scenario above. Which ain't necessarily the case here... On Wed, Sep 29, 2010 at 2:44 PM, Paul Hutchings <[email protected]> wrote: Not sure if it differs in the US but I'm a bit unsure why you're talking about "hiring" consultants? Why not just invite in a bunch of VAR's, go through your needs and ask them to quote on a solution? And to echo others thoughts, manufacturers will obviously have an agenda, resellers will have an agenda (to sell you something just from a bit wider pool), and even the best meaning consultant will have a certain bias based off what they're familiar with (not to say it won't be a good solution, but you take the point). I wouldn't expect you to have to be paying anyone a bean to get some detailed options. ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to [email protected] with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin -- Gary K. 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