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- Exchange was a AU$33 million contract and took four years - Gmail is $9.5 million and should be live by the end of 2008 - User storage will increase from 35

- Exchange was a AU$33 million contract and took four years - Gmail is $9.5 million and should be live by the end of 2008 - User storage will increase from 35 MB to 1 GB

mynameishere 18y ago
Yeah, I read that. The alternative would be: Hire a team of 1st rate sys admins, set up mail servers. Total cost: Maybe 1.5 million a year.
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]
- helveticaman 18y ago
  Hire a team of 1st rate sys admins, From what I understand, looking for 1st rate sys admins is like looking for rockstar janitors.
  - olefoo 18y ago
    "I'd thank you, but system administration is a thankless job."
  - smanek 18y ago
    I don't really buy that. I know several great programmers who are now great sysadmins, or vice versa. Now, sysadmin may be a bit of a misnomer - sometimes sysadmins are given fancy titles such as 'network engineer', 'network architect', 'IT Manager', etc. They're all basically sysadmins. Good sysadmins do more than just image laptops. They are familiar with the software's architecture, so they can help scale it up to whatever proportions are needed. They almost certaintly are proficient perl/bash/python programmers as well.
    - gaius 18y ago
      Education is not going to pay for top-class engineering talent. They pretty much have to go for the lowest common denominator (Exchange, MCSE's are ten a penny) or outsource altogether.
      - LogicHoleFlaw 18y ago
        I personally know several excellent systems engineers who left the education system because the pay is so miserable.
  - maw 18y ago
    In my experience, there are several kinds of sysadmins. Many of them are little more than low-skilled button pressers, password resetters, and service restarters (although they may have lots of domain-specific knowledge learned by rote and not understood). The good ones, however, are more than competent programmers in their own right, can make quick and accurate diagnoses of tough problems and fix them, write their own tools, etc.
gaius 18y ago
Why is anyone surprised that a more recent product is faster and cheaper than an older one?
Prrometheus 18y ago
And I expect that many students will find Gmail more convenient. The simplicity of the interface, the fast loading time, and the ability to search your inbox instantly for attachments or contacts are all winners for Gmail.

- Exchange was a AU$33 million contract and took four years - Gmail is $9.5 million and should be live by the end of 2008 - User storage will increase from 35 MB to 1 GB

mynameishere 18y ago

Yeah, I read that. The alternative would be: Hire a team of 1st rate sys admins, set up mail servers. Total cost: Maybe 1.5 million a year.

deleted 18y ago
[deleted]
helveticaman 18y ago
Hire a team of 1st rate sys admins, From what I understand, looking for 1st rate sys admins is like looking for rockstar janitors.
- olefoo 18y ago
  "I'd thank you, but system administration is a thankless job."
- smanek 18y ago
  I don't really buy that. I know several great programmers who are now great sysadmins, or vice versa. Now, sysadmin may be a bit of a misnomer - sometimes sysadmins are given fancy titles such as 'network engineer', 'network architect', 'IT Manager', etc. They're all basically sysadmins. Good sysadmins do more than just image laptops. They are familiar with the software's architecture, so they can help scale it up to whatever proportions are needed. They almost certaintly are proficient perl/bash/python programmers as well.
  - gaius 18y ago
    Education is not going to pay for top-class engineering talent. They pretty much have to go for the lowest common denominator (Exchange, MCSE's are ten a penny) or outsource altogether.
    - LogicHoleFlaw 18y ago
      I personally know several excellent systems engineers who left the education system because the pay is so miserable.
- maw 18y ago
  In my experience, there are several kinds of sysadmins. Many of them are little more than low-skilled button pressers, password resetters, and service restarters (although they may have lots of domain-specific knowledge learned by rote and not understood). The good ones, however, are more than competent programmers in their own right, can make quick and accurate diagnoses of tough problems and fix them, write their own tools, etc.

gaius 18y ago

Why is anyone surprised that a more recent product is faster and cheaper than an older one?

Prrometheus 18y ago

And I expect that many students will find Gmail more convenient. The simplicity of the interface, the fast loading time, and the ability to search your inbox instantly for attachments or contacts are all winners for Gmail.