Purchasing storage shouldn’t require poker skills.

As many regular readers know we have been helping a NetApp customer negotiate his way through the NetApp Software support poker game. NetApp initially quoted him over $74,000.00 for his software support and the customer called us to help him make sense of the quote. We told the customer that typically NetApp charges about $5200.00 a year for ongoing software support for a F760. We have seen NetApp try this Bluff before, the idea is to raise the price of the support for an older system to incentivize the customer to buy a new system. But in this case the customer called their Bluff. After a few days the customer called back NetApp and he told them that his current storage architecture perfectly met his needs and he did not see any reason to upgrade. Either they could take his offer for one year of support or he would pick up his chips and leave the table. They caved in, met his price point, and walked away with their tail between their legs.

Many customers call us when they are playing poker with their NetApp sales people, one tactic that we have seen from a Canadian customer’s quote is for NetApp to include Snap Mirror on their quote for a single system. We have never seen a Snap mirror licensed box mirror to itself so this seems to be another tactic to pad the quote, to the unsuspecting customer. This customer called Zerowait and we explained to him how to play poker with NetApp.

Working with NetApp on a new purchase requires that you negotiate everything and clearly write down your terms on your purchase order. Zerowait can teach you the poker skills you need when it comes time to meet your salesman at the Poker table. Remember it is your money and critical data that you are gambling with. If you need some tips, give us a call!