[2190] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Low end users
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Steve Simmons)
Wed Jan 29 14:37:52 1992
From: scs@lokkur.dexter.mi.us (Steve Simmons)
To: com-priv@psi.com (Com-Priv Mailing List)
Date: Wed, 29 Jan 92 14:06:01 EST
Dennis Perry writes:
>Support costs are interesting exercises in the old saying that "figures
>don't lie, but liars figure". We did a study once at Los Alamos when I
>was there which showed that it was more expensive to support distributed
>computing when all the costs were accounted for in the same way that
>they are accounted for in the computer center. Never the less, we supported
>distributed computing because of other issues, not support cost issues.
It has been my 100-percent consistent experience that distributed computing
costs more than centralized computing. This based on 10 years of being a
UNIX admin and admin consultant. Distributed computing *always* has a
higher support cost that either centralized systems or unconnected islands.
The fact that there are tremendous benefits to distributed computing don't
change the issue of increased support costs.
