What I've seen is that low-salaried ops people are viewed as a substitute for capital expenditure in this environment. It strongly discourages purchasing softwa

What I've seen is that low-salaried ops people are viewed as a substitute for capital expenditure in this environment. It strongly discourages purchasing software and even non-white box hardware. "Just have IT cobble together something open source", is the message from administration and PIs. The result is ramshackle, inefficient systems running on low bidder hardware from often dubious "HPC" resellers.