我們“真的 ”知道自己在說什麼嗎？
Neil Cameron
作爲一名技術顧問——現在也兼作銷售、營銷專家、物流專家外加普通勤雜工，我和客戶交流的時間非常之多。事實上，如果有人打電話問我，“我需要的是哪張卡？”，他們很可能會爲此感到懊悔，因爲答案從來都不象大家期望的那樣簡單。
“你會推薦哪款硬盤？”之類的問題也會帶來同樣的結果。這個問題會引出一連串的麻煩，常識告訴我，應該儘可能避而遠之——但我的常識顯然經常遭受質疑。
因此……我的努力方向一直是讓大家轉向8系列（6G或12Gb/s系統兼容）的控制器，以及適合客戶數據需求的SSD。帶着這個既定目標，我和許多大型集成商進行過深入交流，他們已經對澳大利亞市場上常見的硬盤進行了大量測試，我的建議從而可以建立在他們的“實際”經驗的基礎之上。
眼下，在澳大利亞，問題的關鍵不在於“最便宜的RAID卡是什麼？”通常的問法是“哪張卡能讓系統的速度夠快，能讓客戶滿意？”這樣的對話頗爲有益，因爲可以幫助客戶思考其客戶的存儲需求到底是什麼，而不是僅僅考慮其底線（雖然底線是個非常、非常重要的考量）。
那麼，我的建議會是什麼呢？由於我所在地區每個國家的硬盤價格千差萬別，所以這個問題的答案對全世界的客戶會各不相同。SAS在印度很便宜，而SSD則很昂貴。SAS在澳大利亞很昂貴，而由於SSD在價格、容量及性能上的優勢，SSD正全面侵佔整個市場。然而，所有因素均考慮在內，我依然發現PMC的8系列控制器及Sandisk的SSD在市場上正迅速竄升。看起來，大家認爲15GSAS不大划算（散熱、功耗加上成本，而速度並不如何驚人），而SSD在企業級市場則是個不錯的選擇。
好吧，這些調查對我的銷售當然有好處，而且也給了我每日聊天的話題（雖然客戶迫不及待地想要趕緊掛上電話），但也讓我開始琢磨，這是不是個全球性的現象呢……我想藉此機會，向全世界提出這個問題：“你會不會問你的供應商，適合你需求的產品是什麼？”
令人啼笑皆非的是，我發現越來越多的人感到根本無法與供應商交流，而不得不自己上網，在網上努力去蕪存菁，試圖理解看到的資料，然後自己做出一個明智的選擇。
要是問我的意見，兩種方法都是無謂的浪費。我可能是老古董了，但我桌子上的電話還是主要拿來打電話（而不是看臉書等），並且，如果我真想要了解某款產品的信息，真正的交談還是十分有效——而不是自己懵懵懂懂地去做一通研究，以爲就此可以成爲產品的專家。
那麼，應該採取什麼行動呢？我強烈建議，拿起電話，給我們打個電話。不論你在世界的哪個角落，都能找到對PMC產品懂行的人——從PMC公司內部到代理商到零售渠道商等等，他們都接受過有關PMC產品使用及功能的各種培訓。
這個方法比埋頭閱讀網頁要強得多……給我們來個電話吧，一起討論您的需求——電話號碼就在網頁上。
So we actually “do” know what we are talking about?
As a technical advisor, and now a salesman, marketing expert, logistics expert and general dogsbody I spend a lot of time talking to my customers. In fact if someone rings up asking the question “which card do I need?” they probably end up regretting it because it’s never a short simple answer.
The same goes with “which disk do you recommend?” … that one is a can of worms that common-sense says I should stay away from, but I’ve never been accused of having too much of that commodity.
So …my push has been to move people to Series 8 (6 or 12Gb/s system compatible) controllers, and towards SSDs when they suit the customer’s data needs. With that in mind I’ve talked to a lot of my larger integrators who have done considerable testing on drives that are readily available in the Australian marketplace,and base a lot of my recommendations on their “real-world” experiences.
Nowin Australia the question does not start with “what is your cheapest RAIDcard?”, it generally starts with “what is the right card to make this thing go fast enough so the customer won’t complain?”. That’s a good conversation tohave because it helps my customers think about their customer storage needs,not just the bottom line (though yes, that is still very, very important).
Sowhat do I recommend? This is probably very different for customers across theworld because of the discrepancies in drive prices that we see from country tocountry across my region. SAS is cheap in India, SSD is expensive. SAS isexpensive in Australia and SSD is taking over big time due to price, capacityand performance. However, all that taken into account I’m finding a greatuptake on 8 Series Controllers and Sandisk SSDs (top of the range of course).It seems people are finding that 15K SAS is just not worth it (heat, powerconsumption and cost for not a fantastic speed), and that SSD is a good choicein the enterprise market.
Nowall this is good for my sales and gives me someone to talk to on a daily basis(even if the customer can’t wait to get off the phone), but it makes me wonderwhether this is a worldwide phenomenon … since this is a global blog I’ll askthe question of the worldwide community: “Do you talk to your vendor to askwhat is the right product to suit your needs?”
IronicallyI find more and more people who don’t think they can even talk to the vendor,but rather have to go online and sift through the chaff on websites trying to(a) understand what they are seeing and (b) make sense of it all to come upwith an informed decision.
Asfar as I’m concerned both are a waste of time. I might be old fashioned but themobile phone on my desk is still predominantly used for making phone calls (andnot facebooking, etc), and I still find it useful to actually talk to someoneif I want to find something out about a product – not try and become a productexpert myself with limited idea of what I’m doing.
Sowhat do you do? I’d strongly suggest you pick up the phone and talk to us. Nomatter where you are in the world there will be someone who knows somethingabout our products – from the company directly to our distribution and resellerchannel who are trained in the use and capabilities of our products.
Beatsreading the web (which is ironic because that’s what you are dong while readingthis) … so give us a call and discuss your requirements – the phone numbers areon the web (that’s tongue in cheek).