Transcript Storage Decisions 2004

STORAGE ARCHITECTURE/
EXECUTIVE:
Creative Negotiating and
Financing for Storage Purchases
How to take back control of the buying process...
Bill Peldzus
Director of Storage Architecture
GlassHouse Technologies
Agenda
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Definitions: RFI versus RFP
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Creative purchasing
Current State
Using a Storage Reference Architecture
The process
Rating the responses
Devil in the details
Negotiation techniques and where vendors are most
flexible
Success criteria
Your vision may not be your vendors’ vision
Disk Storage Vision
•Technology
•Process
•Policy
•Measurability
Fabric Storage Vision
•Technology
•Process
•Policy
•Measurability
HA Storage Vision
•Technology
•Process
•Policy
•Measurability
Storage Management
Vision
•Technology
•Process
•Policy
•Measurability
Customer’s Overall Storage Vision
Tape Storage Vision
•Technology
•Process
•Policy
•Measurability
Enterprise Backup
Storage Vision
•Technology
•Process
•Policy
•Measurability
RFI/RFP – Lets you take control
DR Storage Vision
•Technology
•Process
•Policy
•Measurability
Request for…
RFI
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Request for Information
Results in best technology decision
High-level pricing only for budgeting
Based upon your business drivers and
requirements
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Often used to define technology buying
standards for national/multi-national
corporations
Request for…
RFP
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Request for Proposal
Results in best purchasing decision
“Give me your best price”
Based upon a storage reference architecture
Usually for larger, net-new purchases
 Not for expansion disk in an existing array
But first…
 At the end of our last purchasing
(RFP) engagement, the vendor(s)
told us:
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“Your RFP was a pain in the @ss”
 Oh, by the way… That’s a GOOD
thing!
The storage reference architecture
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Maps customer requirements to specific products
Tells the vendors exactly what you need
Includes the following building blocks:
Application Integration
Services
Storage Policy Management
Software
Hardware
Application Management
Storage Resource Management
Storage System Management
Virtualization
Continuity
Replication
Storage Networking
Arrays
Libraries
Disk Drives
Tape Drives
Storage reference architecture example
An RFP must…
 Provide details on current state:
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Include current and proposed performance metrics
 Provide details on your proposed future state:
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Fabric design (if Fibre Channel)
Network design (if IP storage)
Servers
Storage
HBAs
Tape libraries/drives
Any software, including versions
Database information
WAN information, if replicating
Details on OSes, patches, firmware, microcode
An RFP must… (2)
 Discuss current and future Recovery Time
Objectives (RTO) and Recovery Point
Objectives (RPO) for Backup & DR
 Discuss current and future Service Level
Agreements (SLA) and Standard Operating
Procedures (SOP)
 Delineate restrictions
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“We can’t upgrade to OS Vx.x until next year due
to application limitations.”
RFP process
 Use an Intent to Respond (ITR) early
 Define your internal review team and ensure buyin from all involved
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Don’t forget the political climate (favorite vendors)
This includes legal, purchasing, maybe a C-level
executive
 Remember that Nondisclosure Agreements
(NDAs) and confidentiality agreements take time
 Get a primary contact at each vendor
RFP process (2)
 Do vendor pre-meetings!
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Discuss it live; ensure they understand the
objectives and timeline
 Set the communications guidelines
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Phone calls allowed? E-mail only?
 Establish other important “Rules”
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“Don’t contact any one else at my company
regarding this RFP during this project.”
 Provide the project plan and schedules to all
RFP process (3)
 Dictate the response format
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Line-item pricing
Short, concise answers to specific questions
 “Does your product support CIM/SMI-S?” rather
than “Discuss how your product conforms to
management standards”
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GA only?
What’s optional? What’s required?
 Ensure adequate time for responses, including Q&A
periods
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Make sure all vendors receive clarifications from Q&A
Short, concise questions?
 Based upon a previous engagement, we thought
this was short and to the point…
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“Do you sell direct to end-users?”
 However, the answer wasn’t quite so concise…
or clear!
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“We have implemented a multi-channel distribution
system to maximize global coverage and to further
develop productive relationships with partners.”
 So, was that a “yes” or a “no”?
Rating the responses
What’s your IT
priority?
What are the most important
aspects of the RFP?
What are the business drivers?
Who are the beneficiaries of
the technology?
These are just a few examples
of guiding the selection criteria.
Clustering for high availability
Price, footprint, manageability
Disaster recovery and remote
replication
Rating the responses (2)
 Key considerations
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Writing your RFP with rating/scoring the responses already
in mind! Have your matrix ready at distribution time – not
after
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What weight will I give each of the areas within the
response?
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Is my storage reference architecture rock-solid? Or, will I
adjust based upon responses?
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Ensure you check references, preferably other companies
similar to yours (score these calls as well!)
The devil in the details…
 Ask the important company information questions
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These will be different between public and private
companies
 Company financials
 Pending litigation?
 Significant recent layoffs?
 Executive turnover?
 Key partnerships?
 Go-to-market model
 Services model
 Who are your primary competitors?
 These are even more important if you are considering
start-ups!
The devil in the details… (2)
 Be careful of roadmaps and futures
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It’s only where they THINK they are going
 Ask about product/purchasing lead-times
 It’s perfectly okay to ask for things in writing
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Request a written guarantee with financial penalties on:
 Stability/uptime
 Performance
 Give the vendors “commentary” opportunities within
the RFP
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They may want to clarify a “No” answer
Negotiation techniques
a.k.a., Where the vendors are most flexible
 It gets fun when it’s down to the “final two.”
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The CEO of a large storage vendor told one of our customers that “He
has not authorized the sales team to lose this deal!”
 It’s easy for vendors to add services and training at little to no
additional cost
 The larger the purchase, the more leverage
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It may even be cheaper overall to buy more than you need now
 Consider asking for an on-site vendor techie for the first few
months
 How much maintenance and support included with initial purchase?
 Need help with data migration?
Creative purchasing
 Pay as you grow
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Installed capacity that is “turned on” when needed
 Lease versus buy
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Get your finance team involved early
 Buy-back of old or replaced equipment
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Get prices with and without this option
 “Not to exceed” future pricing
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Make sure the deal you get today is in place tomorrow,
especially if you get locked in to a product or vendor in the
short-term
 Built-in technology refreshes
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Protect yourself in case they announce the latest and greatest
two months after you buy
Position for success!
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Consider an independent third-party for the project
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Provides a layer of “isolation” between vendor and customer
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Easily pays for itself several times over if purchasing over $1m of
hardware/software
Can alleviate political issues/biases within your company
Positioned to craft the most detailed and tailored RFP
Can provide a detailed analysis of the responses
Will ensure you only pay for what you need, and can assist in
negotiations
For the largest purchases, C-levels often dictate some
type of independent auditor/expert in the process
In conclusion…
 The more work put in up-front, the greater
chance for success!
 Success equals:
• The right products
• Matched to your business requirements
• At the best price
• That work and interoperate on Day One
• And are delivered, installed, and configured on-time
• With no $urprises, and total internal buy-in
• With a flexible and scalable architecture to easily
accommodate growth
Thank you!
Questions?
Bill Peldzus
GlassHouse Technologies
[email protected]