How to buy storage

An expert offers best practices for purchasing capacity, from drives to SANs.

By Bill Peldzus, Network World
December 12, 2005 12:02 AM ET

. What's this?

Do storage vendors really sell hardware anymore? I'd say no. They sell solutions, value-added services, software, maintenance and so forth. Whatever they call it, you still need to store, protect, back up and archive your data on something.

Like many consultants, I previously worked as an IT director and a vendor. When I made a fairly significant career move to a storage vendor, I remember my data-center compatriots remarking that I was going over to the dark side.

The contrast between the customer and vendor sides of the purchasing table is amazing. I quickly realized how many $1 million-plus storage purchases I had made where I left something - many times a significant something - on the table. The bottom line: It's all about leverage; when you have it as a customer, you need to use it.

There are hundreds of tips and techniques to get the most out of your next storage purchase, but the advice that follows is a good starting point. It's often about more than just lowering the overall price. I'm not advocating negotiating deal after deal in which the vendors lose money - that's not good for either party.

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Margins can be pretty significant, however, sometimes well over 50% on list price. If you can get more when you're spending big bucks, it can make you a hero in many eyes, from the CFO to the CTO.

Understand the objectives

Secrets to a successful RFP

•	Ensure enough time and resources are dedicated to the overall purchasing process.
•	Dictate the solution through a storage reference architecture.
•	Before distributing the RFP, determine how you’ll evaluate the responses against your requirements.
•	Require line-item pricing in the proposals.
•	Word your questions as specifically as possible, requiring a “yes” or “no” response where appropriate.

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When making a large storage purchase, the two most important internal responsibilities are to create and follow a detailed process, and to have the subject-matter expertise necessary to keep you from being led in the wrong technology or product direction.

The bigger the purchase, the more leverage you have. Chances are you won't have a lot of influence when you are negotiating a purchase of additional disk drives to put into an existing storage array.

On the other hand, you'll get a lot of attention from vendors if you are migrating a large server farm or data center with direct-attached storage into a consolidated storage-area network (SAN). For big companies, such a purchase typically costs in the seven-figure range. Understand your leverage in the purchasing process and take control from start to finish.

Have realistic expectations

It's absolutely amazing the amount of time and resources that the purchase process and procedures take. At a high level, the tasks include selecting participating vendors, completing confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements, and distributing an intent to respond (ITR), which is the first document that goes out to vendors about your purchase.

The ITR provides your expectations for the project, establishes the ground rules for communications, and schedules the multiple vendor meetings and presentations. Program and project management can be a full-time job. From start to finish, including providing adequate time for responses, a midsize purchase project can take two months or more.