After spending the last few months intensely discussing a range of technologies in the data center industry something was bothering me. I understood what their technology did, but as I kept asking about performance and other operating issues I wasn’t getting answers I wanted. The simple think I want to know is “how well does this technology work.” If someone uses it what are the issues they will run into. By solving one set of problems, what new problems do they pick up?

Telling me what customers you have as references tells me you have done a good job selling your service, but that doesn’t mean it works well. Sometimes the people who make the purchasing decisions are far removed from the operating issues. Being able to have conversations with operations staff is one of the ways to get to the truth. Even if you have a nice looking report I’ll still be suspicious.

Hearing from someone who uses a technology in operations is one of the most credible sources. As an option push the vendor to answer, “how well does this work?” And when they tell you how it works. Repeat, I know how it works. I want to know how well it works, operates.