Our most important criteria when selecting a vendor are * the size of the vendor itself * how stable the company is * how long they have been in the market * what product suites they have that can help us achieve our goal at the end of the day. We look for partners, not vendors per se, that can help us implement our vision with us, and that's why we like Automic. I give it a good nine out of 10 at this time. The one piece that I think that could help leverage more of the tool is the scripting language barrier at this time. If that's not there, and some of the pieces that could be delivered faster, it might be adopted more out there in the market. I would suggest look at the complete offering that's out there. I would suggest: Prove it out first with the use case that you have. We were not shy in terms of running some proofs of concept with a couple of big vendors out there, and then making them make the case why their product suits our use case. And don't be shy to restart if there is something that you think is not going right, make sure you fix the problem before it gets too late.
