I'm not saying "don't get good advice", but I am suggesting don't necessarily rush into paying someone to come in and put together a plan.
I'm also looking for a replacement SAN, my approach has been to look at options, which has come down to researching the hell out of them via the documentation, manufacturers websites, and various peer forums. Once I had an idea who the main contenders were likely to be I called them (rather than stick a pin in a list of resellers) and invited them in to discuss what their solution offered. Most have brought in a reseller that they thought suited our requirements (which in our case is more or less what I'd call "box shifting" as we don't need much value-add). No reason you can't do the same as a starting point, it won't cost you anything because they want to sell you their product. It won't take long before the pieces start to fall into place and you'll get an idea what's a good fit and what isn't. Ditto all the other stuff like backup options - I know I've said on some of your other posts but buy a server, install ESXi, get a few VM's up and running and play with stuff, test it, try it. If you don't have the time to do it then fair enough go hire someone, but personally this I enjoy getting my hands dirty and less money spent on paying someone to do it for you is more money to spend on good products. ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to [email protected] with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
