Sales of disk storage systems in the first quarter this year were about 18 percent higher than in the first quarter last year, according to International Data Corp. The growth in total storage capacity more than doubled from the previous year. Much of the growth stemmed from a high demand for specialized systems for database storage, storage tiering and data deduplication, according to IDC analyst Liz Conner.

It's clear that organizations need greater storage capabilities and the available offerings are becoming more advanced, but some industry observers question whether support is keeping pace with the increasingly complex products. The growing complexity leads to less reliability overall, and that means that vendor support becomes all the more important, Matt Prigge writes in a post at InfoWorld.

"Instead of seeing a broken drive or controller that just needs replacing, I often run across problems in the field that turn out to be software bugs requiring engineering input to diagnose and resolve," Prigge writes. "While we're becoming more and more dependent on vendor support to keep the infrastructure humming, the quality and reliability of that support itself seems less and less likely to live up to our expectations."

What Prigge thinks you should get from storage vendors when a problem arises is a "direct, knowledgeable response from a known contact with a clear action plan and a set time for problem resolution..." Instead, you are more likely to get a call-back from a low-level tech, and if the problem isn't clear-cut "you can get stuck in an interminable maze of nonsensical troubleshooting steps before anyone will dispatch a tech on site and really get to work on solving the problem," he writes.

Premium support packages are available, but Prigge suggests a different route: Rather than buying one device and a very expensive support guarantee, you could buy two devices and keep one as a spare. "With devices lower down the food chain from primary storage, it's common to see a raft of hardware (such as network switches) covered by the lowest-level warranty and protected by a spare device sitting on a shelf," he writes.

For more:
- see the IDC press release
- read Matt Prigge's post at InfoWorld

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