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    What do you think of Faction?

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    faction
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    • thanksajdotcomT
      thanksajdotcom
      last edited by

      Website seems very flashy, but not very practical. Just my first impression. Designed to catch the eye but it doesn't navigate as well as I'd like it to.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • scottalanmillerS
        scottalanmiller
        last edited by

        From the engineering side:

        0_1447261365508_factiontech.png

        Cisco UCS screams that they are suckers for slick salesman. UCS isn't very good.

        Open Compute is super cheap disposable stuff. It makes sense when you are building your own gear and it is redundant in big clusters. Not something I want to see from a cloud provider.

        NetApp, definitely not something I want my data running on. Overpriced, under-delivering.

        VMware vCloud powered. Same red flags (VMware + SAN) that we saw right away with CloudatCost. Every one of these technologies suggests that they lack the basic IT rigor to evaluate products and designs and are relying on salesman to "sell them what the need" rather than knowing what to do themselves.

        LincolnL 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • scottalanmillerS
          scottalanmiller
          last edited by

          0_1447261671337_sla.png

          Carefully worded.... there is no guarantee of uptime or performance, only a guarantee of "100% SLA". That is, quite literally, gibberish. It has no meaning whatsoever.

          drewlanderD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • scottalanmillerS
            scottalanmiller
            last edited by

            0_1447261789136_compromise.png

            Um, we didn't have that issue with cloud. What is this mysterious compromise that they claim that we have made. This is insulting and without some explanation feels like lying.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • RojoLocoR
              RojoLoco
              last edited by

              I hate websites that feel the need to have pics of their employees / C-levels / engineers staring at me creepliy while I try to look at the site.

              thanksajdotcomT 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
              • scottalanmillerS
                scottalanmiller
                last edited by

                0_1447261955887_patented.png

                Patented is not a selling point. Patented either implies "lock in" or "valueless and we have to promote our ownership of it as its only value." It's just another way to say it's crap but they needed an adjective.

                LincolnL 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                • thanksajdotcomT
                  thanksajdotcom @RojoLoco
                  last edited by

                  @RojoLoco said:

                  I hate websites that feel the need to have pics of their employees / C-levels / engineers staring at me creepliy while I try to look at the site.

                  Youtube Video

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                  • scottalanmillerS
                    scottalanmiller
                    last edited by

                    0_1447262048269_directbuy.png

                    Why would this take so long? How did it make it faster? How did they justify that their own staff would take six months or that this took two months? Why were they not virtual already? This tells us nothing of value and leaves us wondering if the issue isn't that DirectBuy is just incompetent.

                    Why is DirectBuy, anyway?

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                    • scottalanmillerS
                      scottalanmiller
                      last edited by

                      I keep looking at the site but am getting nothing. Lots of meaningless words, no positive technology info. Sounds like just a random colocation service. Nothing that they list that we don't already have, better, today. Can't find any selling points.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • scottalanmillerS
                        scottalanmiller
                        last edited by

                        At the end of all of that.... most of that stuff is probably ad copy from random web designers (we hope) but the bottom line is, it's fluff and pointless and I see no reason to consider engaging with them further. They don't seem to have anything to offer. Everything is very ambiguous at best. There is no solid product offering, no pricing, no reason to suspect that they even offer something we would want.

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                        • J
                          Jason Banned
                          last edited by

                          I don't like the look of the website. Space is poorly used and badly designed. Navigation frame just looks weird like it's some 1990's Front Page website.

                          I didn't look a ton at the content because the design is bad, but what I saw was very little actual information and all marketing terms.

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                          • DashrenderD
                            Dashrender
                            last edited by

                            Seeing pricing on the main page or only one click away is a near requirement for me. If you're not willing to show me your price, I'm probably not willing to contact you.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
                            • scottalanmillerS
                              scottalanmiller
                              last edited by

                              I kind of understand that it is probably the kind of service where pricing is not really an option, but they need a whole lot more if the website is going to be a tool to do sales in any way.

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • DashrenderD
                                Dashrender
                                last edited by

                                what do you mean, not an option?

                                scottalanmillerS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • scottalanmillerS
                                  scottalanmiller @Dashrender
                                  last edited by

                                  @Dashrender said:

                                  what do you mean, not an option?

                                  Not exactly not an option but complex and not the kind of thing that you could provide in a price list. Like just so many options and mostly including support and such that you can't just look up how much something will cost.

                                  DashrenderD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • StrongBadS
                                    StrongBad
                                    last edited by

                                    I don't think that the site looks "bad" per se, but I agree that now that I have looked at it I know nothing more than before I had never heard of them.

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • DashrenderD
                                      Dashrender @scottalanmiller
                                      last edited by

                                      @scottalanmiller said:

                                      @Dashrender said:

                                      what do you mean, not an option?

                                      Not exactly not an option but complex and not the kind of thing that you could provide in a price list. Like just so many options and mostly including support and such that you can't just look up how much something will cost.

                                      Sigh.. yeah, I sorta understand that... but give me a bone.. give me something so I at least have a starting point. Even if that starting point is completely wrong. The idea that I must make contact inorder to anything is highly undesirable and allows them to play pricing games.

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • scottalanmillerS
                                        scottalanmiller
                                        last edited by

                                        I agree, with zero information there is no incentive for me to continue at all. No idea if they are cheap, useful, have important features, etc. I literally know nothing at this point.

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • drewlanderD
                                          drewlander @scottalanmiller
                                          last edited by

                                          @scottalanmiller said:

                                          0_1447261671337_sla.png

                                          Carefully worded.... there is no guarantee of uptime or performance, only a guarantee of "100% SLA". That is, quite literally, gibberish. It has no meaning whatsoever.

                                          This is so funny. I frequently read contracts with garbage like this for new clients to help get them on track. Just yesterday I had a client send me their Rackspace contract. They're paying 550/mo for what they thought was a dedicated server, but what they got was "Dedicated Account Management and Business Development Team". So basically they've been paying 550/mo for a VPS running Windows Server 2008 to host Quickbooks for two people. sigh.

                                          scottalanmillerS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                          • scottalanmillerS
                                            scottalanmiller @drewlander
                                            last edited by

                                            @drewlander marketing preys on that a lot. For some reason, many people (IT seems specifically subject to this) will read in a "good intent" into every bit of marketing, sales, contracts, etc. Even if the contract suggests nothing of the sort people feel like "they would definitely want to do X or Y" and so imagine that the contract says that. In this case they imagine that "uptime" is sensible and desirous so they just assume it is being guaranteed.

                                            It is an incredibly unhealthy reaction. It's like the "fool yourself on the other person's behalf" behaviour. The vendor is not the con man here, they've suggested nothing like uptime at all. They've not hinted at it, implied it... nothing. People reading it want uptime, don't want to ask and just "fill in the blank" with whatever they want and then act shocked when it is pointed out that nothing of the sort was said.

                                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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