Re: comments on draft-ietf-sming-reqs-03.txt

[Chris Wellens <chrisw@iwl.com>]

Frank,

I appreciate all the hard work on this draft; the draft contains great
information and ideas.   I respect all the authors.  I apologize for not
voicing my concerns earlier.  When I attended the WG meetings and heard
these discussions, I was somewhat startled by the direction.   I was
told by those "in the know" that this direction would never happen and
not to worry about it, and now here we are at last call.

I agree with Jeff Case amd Jon S. that the functionality proposed in this
document is not sufficient bang-for-the-buck.  The venture capitalists
say don't even bother with a new product unless you can deliver a 10X
improvement in what's currently out there.  Another approach they take is
ask you to find five customers who would absolutely jump up and down with
joy to acquire this product.  Are there five customers jumping up and
down to get the capabilities in draft-ietf-sming-reqs-03.txt?  If so,
what are they willing to pay?  I was happy to see that the document
included traceability to the source of the requirements, but none of
the sources are actual customers the way a VC defines it.

If this document goes forward on the standards track, I am worried that
one or two years from now, this will be a repeat of our SNMPv3 experience.
Russ Mundy, the Chair of that WG, spent so many meetings asking for
implementation reports and examples, and nothing was forthcoming.
I shudder to think of all the money spent on SNMPv3 development that still
has not taken off in the market.  During the definition of SNMPv3 the WG
did not have a set of customers clarifying requirements.  As a result,
all we knew was that in general customers wanted security, but what kind?
how robust? what tradeoffs would be acceptable?   As far as I know, the
only place where v3 is taking off is in the cable modem DOCSIS 1.1 work,
and even there the implementors are bitterly complaining about v3 and
discussing other alternatives.

In order to avoid the same fate, I would like to see the requirements
justified by customer demand.

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