[TriLUG] OT: wcpss technology purchases

[Magnus]

On 5/7/06, Jim Wright <wrightjim at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> And if you happen to be a wcpss parent like me...you wonder what they
> are using computers for at all...most things are still done on paper
> in triplicate.  I'd swear some of it still has that old mimeograph
> smell to it, too.



Well there is a very legitimate need for school districts to have an IT
infrastructure, relational database applications, email, and so on.  But I
have worked in a lot of different places... big marketing firms,
pharmaceuticals, etc. and it is only under exceedingly rare and special
circumstances that I've even seen hardware that big in the data center.  I
don't think a school district could possibly have enough faculty & students
to justify any application that would fully utilize such hardware.  Someone
is not being very upfront and honest about what this is for, that's my
hunch.

If they had said "$50,000 for a server to run Oracle on and another $50,000
for Oracle licensing" I would have been more likely to believe that.  And
keep in mind, still, I think that's a bit much for a school district.  But
its more in line with what a deep pocketed corporation would spend.  What
you're talking about here is more in line with a three letter federal
intelligence agency.