Passport Advantage questions

I am looking for some experiences and insight on Informix support. I had an engine down this weekend and our VAR does not have after hours support which caused us some major grief. I would like to get support and bypass our var because of the 24x7 bit. I called IBM and don't understand the deal. They claim a Passport Advantage account for IDS 7.3 would be $412 dollars per year. I asked 3 times how could that be so cheap for unlimited calls for 1 year. What am I missing or did IBM missunderstand me? Thanks Gary Quiring

Gary Quiring wrote: > I am looking for some experiences and insight on Informix support. I > had an engine down this weekend and our VAR does not have after hours > support which caused us some major grief. > > I would like to get support and bypass our var because of the 24x7 > bit. I called IBM and don't understand the deal. They claim a > Passport Advantage account for IDS 7.3 would be $412 dollars per year. > I asked 3 times how could that be so cheap for unlimited calls for 1 > year. What am I missing or did IBM missunderstand me? Well, it might be cheap, but like so many IBM processes, it doesn't actually work.... :o) -- "C'est pas parce qu'on n'a rien ''' dire qu'il faut fermer sa gueule" - Coluche

"Gary Quiring" <gquiring@msn.com> wrote in message news:erao005h3p22ffqhbc4138fq4s15hjghrc@4ax.com... > I am looking for some experiences and insight on Informix support. I > had an engine down this weekend and our VAR does not have after hours > support which caused us some major grief. > > I would like to get support and bypass our var because of the 24x7 > bit. I called IBM and don't understand the deal. They claim a > Passport Advantage account for IDS 7.3 would be $412 dollars per year. > I asked 3 times how could that be so cheap for unlimited calls for 1 > year. What am I missing or did IBM missunderstand me? As I posted at the weekend when you asked for help, most Informix support accounts have been transitioned to Passport Advantage (PA). One of the features of PA is 24-hour support, and if I were you I would be asking your VAR why they don't have this cover. Informix support is old on a per cpu or per user basis. How many licences or processors are you licensed for? To give you an idea, IDS Workgroup (ie 2 cpus or fewer) support is, from memory, over '1,000 (US$1,800) per year for the minimum 5 users. Presumably one of the US partners - assuming you are in the US - could give the exact price. But they have no great incentive to, and your discussion should start with your VAR. Hope this helps.

On Mon, 19 Jan 2004 22:14:45 -0000, "Neil Truby" <neil.truby@ardenta.com> wrote: > >"Gary Quiring" <gquiring@msn.com> wrote in message >news:erao005h3p22ffqhbc4138fq4s15hjghrc@4ax.com... >> I am looking for some experiences and insight on Informix support. I >> had an engine down this weekend and our VAR does not have after hours >> support which caused us some major grief. >> >> I would like to get support and bypass our var because of the 24x7 >> bit. I called IBM and don't understand the deal. They claim a >> Passport Advantage account for IDS 7.3 would be $412 dollars per year. >> I asked 3 times how could that be so cheap for unlimited calls for 1 >> year. What am I missing or did IBM missunderstand me? > >As I posted at the weekend when you asked for help, most Informix support >accounts have been transitioned to Passport Advantage (PA). One of the >features of PA is 24-hour support, and if I were you I would be asking your >VAR why they don't have this cover. > >Informix support is old on a per cpu or per user basis. How many licences >or processors are you licensed for? To give you an idea, IDS Workgroup (ie >2 cpus or fewer) support is, from memory, over '1,000 (US$1,800) per year >for the minimum 5 users. Presumably one of the US partners - assuming you >are in the US - could give the exact price. But they have no great >incentive to, and your discussion should start with your VAR. > >Hope this helps. > They charged by the CPU? I have 6 CPU's in my main Sun server with a 275 user count with IDS 7.3 Workgroup Edition. My other 2 IDS servers are 4 CPU's on SCO with 100 users each. But the SCO servers are finally going away 2nd quarter if all goes well. I am switching to 9.4 on Solaris 9. My VAR is an IBM partner. The VAR is in Canada and I am in the USA. I did call the VAR but they did not have any up to date knowledge of PA and it's pricing.