Recommending a Testbed Vendor

["Schoening, James R Mr CIV USA AMC" <James.Schoening@us.Army.Mil>]

IEEE Semantic Interoperability Community of Interest, 

	I'm getting some off-line positive comments, and thanks Phil
Jackson for your positive comments. 

	I suggest we go with Dan's #2 choice, ThePlanet.com.  It looks
almost as good at Rackspace and is almost half the cost.  My office will
cover the first 3-months and then we'll see if we have enough
participation to continue.  

	Are there any objections to selecting ThePlanet.com?  
	
	If we proceed, my office will purchase this server capacity for
use by the IEEE Semantic Interoperability Community of Interest, but
with zero obligations or commitments by this group.  Anyone may use this
space, plus the standard support, for the general purpose and scope of
this group.  If any questions or issues arise, we'll need to get more
organized and establish some rules, which will be needed anyway as
participation expands. 

Jim Schoening

-----Original Message-----
From: Schoening, James R Mr CIV USA AMC
Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 5:45 PM
To: standard-upper-ontology@LISTSERV.IEEE.ORG
Cc: Brennan, Dan Mr CTR USA AMC
Subject: Testbed Vendor Review and Selection

IEEE Semantic Interoperability Community of Interest,

	I propose we review and select a testbed vendor based on Dan
Brennan's analysis (see attached spreadsheet). 

	It would be great if others could co-fund, but my office will
initially cover this, to get it started quickly.  All group members will
have access to the testbed environment and receive standard technical
support.  Special technical support is available at the stated rates. 
 
	Dan provides his recommendation below, but this is a group
effort, so please provide your input and suggestions.  Obviously we'll
go with group consensus.  Please also post any questions.

Jim Schoening




-----Original Message-----
From: Brennan, Dan Mr CTR USA AMC
Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 4:59 PM
To: Schoening, James R Mr CIV USA AMC
Subject: Testbed Vendor Recommendation

Jim;

	The first three companies are all excellent sources for us. The
last does not seem to have the level of customer support required. Out
of the first three, Rackspace seems to have the growth and staying power
as well as focus on customer service that we are looking for.
ThePlanet.com appears to be the biggest. It is the grandfather of the
group. They have changed their product offers last month to focus on the
managed servers (which we want). FastServers.net was a tiny company
purchased recently by a larger (over 100 employees) company.
FastServers.net does offer managed servers and offers three levels of
techical support. It is not clear if any of those limited number of
experts will leave due to the merger. So my feeling is that Rackspace is
our #1 choice, followed by ThePlanet, with FastServers a close #3.
 
Dan

Attachment: Server Vendor Comparison.xls
Description: Server Vendor Comparison.xls