"I'm getting tired of receiving emails telling me about price changes to services at almost no notice"

Trust in vendors is important, but perhaps it's most important of all when it comes to storage - an idea reinforced by the recent AWS outage

- JON HONEYBALL

Trust is one of those very awkward words in our industry. Why do we trust a vendor and their products or services? For some, it’s simply hiding behind a known quantity; “no-one gets fired for buying IBM” was a mantra often muttered many years ago. Performing meaningful risk analysis is usually quite impossible, even for significant organisations. They can do their best, mitigate the obvious risks, but there are always unknowns. And how much are you prepared to spend to take yourself from 99.9% uptime to 99.99%? Is it even possible to get to that level, once you ignore the plaintive claims of the salesperson trying to flog you their solution?

Most people fall on some well-tested thinking. Is the company big and unlikely to disappear tomorrow? Are lots of people using their product? How critical is this component to the operation of your business or home? Do we have a track record with this company’s products, and how bumpy has that experience been? And, most importantly, what is our cost exposure if this company disappears, both in terms of replacement and our downtime?

The problem comes when a vendor screws up. Changes something that, for whatever reason, seriously gives you a bad hair day. Too many companies rely on that little clause in their terms and conditions that says “we have the right to change our offer, including the price, at effectively zero notice to you. And continuing use of our service means you accept the new terms.”