[Zope] References and Consulting (Ask these questions)

[J. Atwood]

> This one I know but this will not be the choosen product. More they're
> thinking
> about Websphere and similar applications (thus commercial ones)

Just as a side note. Most commercial companies do not list any numbers just
for this reason. They all consider their products completely unique and any
sort of benchmarking would be comparing apples to grapes to watermelons.

I know it sounds simplistic, but in the end the only limitations to most of
these systems is how much you are willing to spend. Vignette nor Apple nor
IBM will sit there and tell you that you "can't" do anything, every answer
to every question will be "of course" (and under their breat "as we bill by
the hour." )

Here are a few questions to ask when you are evaluating any of these
products. We (the Zope community) can help, but just like in school, you
have to do your own homework. :)

1) What do I get out of the box? (Compare feature for feature)

2) What is the user community like? Paid vrs free?

3) Can I get support? Where? How much?

4) Is it based on standards or are they creating their own standards?

5) Can I build it if I wanted to?

6) Is it scalable beyond just benchmarks but across many machines or
locations? How much does *THAT* cost?

7) Is the information I am gathering part of a sale?

8) If I have to rebuild it in six months what is the loss/cost and how much
of it will I have to scrap (front end, backend, database, content)?

9) Where is my money best spent? (cause nothing is free)

10) Does it really matter? (it might not)

As someone who put his butt on the line and rebuilt a broken ASP/MS SQL site
into a great Zope site I know what corporate pressure can be like. Ask all
the questions, get all the answers and go with your gut. Hey, the worst case
scenario is you get fired for making the choice you believed in, but would
you rather stay somewhere that did things you didn't?

Cheers,
J