RE: Remote Offsite Backup

Hate to say anything bad about Sungard as I really appreciated that guided 
fly fishing trip on the Dowagiac river when they were trying to get our 
business.  But I've heard, from this list, that they are rather expensive.

With the cost of HA software dropping rapidly (thanks in part to core 
changes in the OS from IBM and competition from iTera), newer box prices, 
and IBM offering special prices on boxes purchased strictly for HA 
purposes, the cost of rolling your own versus Sungard may be more 
attractive.  However, one should consider the total cost of ownership, 
such as:
- environmental concerns at the HA site (power, cooling, ups, generator, 
etc)
- communications
- human concerns (do you have enough desk space, power and cooling to 
support an influx of temporary users)
- labor and transportation cost of maintaining the remote environment 
(ptf's, os upgrades, backups, etc)
- hardware costs (purchase, monthly maintenance, planned upgrades)
- training on the HA solution.
- costs of turnover if the one person trained on the HA solution leaves

One thing about a place with multiple sites, like a Sungard, is that when 
your doing maintenance on your remote site, and your primary belly's up 
(which is when the SOB always goes belly up, trust me) they'll have 
another place to go to.

Sounds like you have some of these already covered though.

Rob Berendt