Jim Lux
From: Bob Drzyzgula [mailto:b...@drzyzgula.org] Sent: Monday, November 18, 2013 4:35 PM To: Lux, Jim (337C) Cc: Ellis H. Wilson III; Beowulf List Subject: Re: [Beowulf] 10GbE Adapter Market FWIW, a couple of refinements to what's been discussed. COTS actually stands for "Commercially available Off The Shelf", often shortened to simply "Commercial Off The Shelf", and it is a legal term defined in the Federal Acquisition Regulations, or FAR. See http://www.acquisition.gov/far/html/Subpart%202_1.html#wp1145508 >>>So that would imply that COTS as a term has been around since 1984 when the >>>FAR was created out of the DAR and civil equivalents. and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_off-the-shelf Also, Jim's point about U.S. law giving the government the best price on all products is missing one essential point: The requirement only extends to products sold under a specific set of terms and conditions. >>>Yes indeed.. It's that distinction in T&C that's important. Relatively few >>>commercial customers insist on the level of paper work inherent in most >>>government procurements. There are a LOT of rules added over the years to >>>address some problem or another that result in this: a lot is because of >>>some previous "sharp practice" that gets a lot of notice. A commercial >>>entity can sort of take a generic cost benefit analysis approach and say >>>"well, we get ripped off occasionally, but the cost of preventing the ripoff >>>is greater than the amount we lose". The government, in general, cannot. [BTW, that site is also a great place to find ballpark prices for items for which prices aren't typically advertised and you typically have to waste your time talking to a salesman. Not everything is in there, but if you want to get a quick idea of how much, say, a 3par storage array will cost, you can probably find someone listing it there] >>> It sure is. The other place to find pricing info is in state agency bid >>> lists. _______________________________________________ Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf@beowulf.org sponsored by Penguin Computing To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf
