What's the lead time on purchasing a SAN?

[Mark R]

Just wondering, and stirring up rumors. I've not bought any of this type of stuff before, so don't really know how it works.

I peripherally involved with a major new solution purchase. Part of the solution involves procuring a substantial amount of SAN storage - basically about 20 mid range SAN devices - each filled to approx 50% (so around 60 drives per unit).

We've received a couple of units, with the others scheduled to be delivered in pairs each week. However, the vendor has now said that they can't supply, and that they will miss the next 2 deliveries.

Obviously, there's always stuff going wrong in projects and orders of this size, but I would have thought SANs would be commodity enough (it's not like we're buying from a 2-bit company) that fairly standard options would be available ex stock.

 

[Chess]

commercial ? education ? govt ?

 

[Phynaz]

Are you buying bare hardware or is configuration involved? Is the vendor a reseller that could be having their own supply issues?

 

[Railgun]

Depends on the reseller and the specific gear. Always get lead times before cutting the PO when making large purchases.

 

[Mark R]

Are you buying bare hardware or is configuration involved? Is the vendor a reseller that could be having their own supply issues?

We are buying as part of a complete software solution, but the software vendor sourced the bare SAN hardware directly from a tier-1 manufacturer. The hardware would be dropshipped to our campus, and installed/configured by the solution provider's onsite staff.

The solution provider has basically told us that they won't be able to sign-over the system on the agreed date, because the SAN vendor has said they cannot supply on the delivery dates originally agreed for when they were awarded the contract to supply.

 

[KentState]

Often, if you go to the manufacturer, they don't keep the product in their inventory, but move it to resllers. For example, HP does not keep servers in their inventory, but ship it to CDW and the like. They will then buy the equipment back from their resellers to meet customer orders.

 

[Brovane]

Just wondering, and stirring up rumors. I've not bought any of this type of stuff before, so don't really know how it works.

I peripherally involved with a major new solution purchase. Part of the solution involves procuring a substantial amount of SAN storage - basically about 20 mid range SAN devices - each filled to approx 50% (so around 60 drives per unit).

We've received a couple of units, with the others scheduled to be delivered in pairs each week. However, the vendor has now said that they can't supply, and that they will miss the next 2 deliveries.

Obviously, there's always stuff going wrong in projects and orders of this size, but I would have thought SANs would be commodity enough (it's not like we're buying from a 2-bit company) that fairly standard options would be available ex stock.

It could be issues with disks and the configuration chosen. I know sometimes specific disk models the supplies can run low. This type of supply disruption can affect SAN purchases. Sometimes I have known people to switch disk types based on this. Realistically the solution provider should have had a better relations with the supplier of the equipment. It sounds like between the solution provider and the hardware provider they just where not talking. I would go after the solution provider and tell them it isn't your problem that they cannot manager their hardware provider.