When acquiring a storage appliance, you have many choices. It seems like everyone these days offers a “storage” system, including a software only, converged or stand-alone. You have many to chose from, including Dell, EMC, NetApp, hybrid and all-flash array startups, and the build your own NAS solutions.
So how do you choose? Do you look at price, support, company size or a vendor’s performance information? What do you examine when picking a storage vendor? Let’s look at a few things to evaluate when deciding who to trust with your data.
Performance
Regardless of how big the company is or how stellar their support staff are, if a storage appliance does not meet your performance needs, then you might as well just place your data on consumer grade NAS from your local computer shop. Don’t be taken by all the vendor performance claims. At iXsystems we don’t believe in publishing IOPS or latency figures — these are valuable but useless in the real world. A technical marketing person can cherry pick any number to make themselves look good and other vendors look bad. The only number that matters is what you see in your own environment. At the end of the day depending upon configuration, you would more than likely be able to get the performance you need from most any storage vendor. I know this sounds funny, being as though we sell TrueNAS, but the simple fact is that if the various vendors that are providing these units could not perform to at least a certain level, then they would not be around very long. So when evaluating a vendor, performance is not the most important criteria.
Price
The famous “how much does it cost?” question. I have consulted with a few companies in the past to where money was no object. They wanted the best and didn’t care how much it cost. But realistically, this criteria is one of the more important of all the criteria. Not the only, as the title of this blog states, but it is one. One must be careful when looking at price. Many times the initial investment may be lower than you would expect but when looking at additional software license or support, the TCO of the unit suddenly isn’t as attractive as it initially seemed. Many times this can sway your decision as to which vendor you choose. Unlike many other vendors, TrueNAS includes thin-provisioning, snapshots, replication and many other features in its price. When many customers see a quote, they want to see the other part of the quote with all the other things they need to buy. With TrueNAS one price is all you pay. iXsystems doesn’t “nickel and dime” you like other vendors. Every TrueNAS includes all storage protocols as well as snapshots, replication, storage optimization, and many other features.
Support
Let’s face it, things happen. And when they do, you need people who will stand by their product through thick and thin. All you want is to feel as though your chosen vendor has just as much urgency in fixing your problem as you have. Having a storage unit that is not functioning is a problem for your business. And how your vendor handles this is in this writers opinion, one of the most important aspects of choosing a vendor. Its like going to a good restaurant and they get your meal wrong. Does a waiter try to blame you? You wouldn’t feel very important and wouldn’t want to come back. The same is true for a storage vendor. When something does break, a vendor that takes your case and makes sure that your problem is addressed quickly and efficiently getting you back working as quickly as possible is important. Making you feel important and valued. That’s key to selecting a storage vendor.
Pre and Post Sales
Have you ever gone to an expensive restaurant and been passed by three different waiters, the bus boy and a manager? You don’t have menus, bread or water. You start to wonder if they even want your business. Selecting a storage vendor can feel the same. How you are treated before the sale can show how you may be treated after the sale. If a vendor doesn’t even care about you before they have you business, how will they care about you after they have your business?
Choosing a storage vendor can be a tough task. High Price doesn’t equal quality. The only price published for TrueNAS is a $/GB range, and that is but one of the many selection points you have to evaluate and test. Evaluate a TrueNAS Enterprise Storage appliance with other storage appliances using your own data and applications and see which one is better. We have decades of experience in providing rock-solid solutions for our thousands of customers. Our solution architects have decades of experience with Open Source technologies and enterprise hardware to help ensure a seamless process from pre-sales through post-deployment. We take pride in our white-glove support, responsiveness to customer needs and building long-term relationships. Many return again and again.
Check out what they have to say about us on our Customer Lobby Reviews page. Call us at 1-855-GREP-4IX or visit us at https://www.ixsystems.com/TrueNAS to learn more.
Marty Godsey
Sales Engineer
