Unix Backup and Recovery

Vendor

There is a lot of important information you need to know about a company from which you plan to purchase such a mission-critical product as backup software. How long have they been providing backup solutions? What kinds of resources are dedicated to the products’ development? What type of support do they have? Are they open to suggestions about their product?

Get the name of at least one reference site and talk to them. Be aware, it is very hard for companies to come up with references. A lot of clients do not want to be a reference, just for political and legal reasons. Be flexible here. Don’t require the salesperson to come up with a reference site that is exactly like your environment.

Tip

If you do get a reference site, make sure that you get in touch with them. The number one complaint of salespeople is that they go through the trouble of obtaining reference sites, only to have the customer never call them.

The Internet is also a wonderful asset at a time like this. Search for the product’s name in the Usenet archives at http://www.deja.com. (Make sure you search the complete archives.) Look for names of people who say good and bad things, and then email them. Also, do general searches on all search engines. Try one of the megasites like http://www.dogpile.com that can search several other sites for you. A really good product will have references on consultants’ web sites. A really bad product might even have an “I hate product X” web site. Read everything with a grain ...