You might want to take a much closer look at their products. If they're aiming for consumers they're doing it completely wrong. No consumer will every buy such hardware, it is just way too expensive and they won't even know a need for it. A lot of Lacie's products are aimed at the professional, especially their display segment (displays, colorimeters, etc.). Take a look at peoples take on ssds and don't be surprised to hear they don't want them because they are too expensive.
When I go and look at all their drive offerings, the only one that I see as a serious enterprise system, is the 12Big Rack series. That's it. The rest is consumer grade to me.
Given the discussion was on storage, I left their LCD displays out of it (but I do agree those are professional grade).
Again, take a better look at the product. It has 2 disks, not 1.
I apologize, it is a 2 disk system set in a stripe set (pair of Intel 510's).
But this is still limited (what I think of with enterprise gear, is 4+ disks, hot swappable bays, and support for levels such as 10/5/6/50/60 via hardware, not software, and push some serious bandwidth). I guess I've spent too much time working with rack systems.
This is why I'm not convinced that the majority of their drive products are enterprise based.
That is a completely wrong assumption since there are many devices which are a complete solution. The Mac being the most obvious example as well as UTM devices and many others. Companies just want to buy a complete solution from the manufacturer. They don't want to build or look for parts themselves. They just want to configure the device. Warranty & support is a big issue in this regard. Not every company will help you to its full extend if you did not buy every part from them (which is quite obvious, you can't support everything). Also bear in mind that professionals are mostly users, not sysadmins.
I'm not talking about hunting down a bunch of parts and putting something together.
I'm talking about professionals should be storing their data on redundant storage solutions, as stripe sets just aren't safe enough. And there are plenty of turn-key units available in all sorts of sizes and configurations (rack vs. tower, 4 to 24, on occasion 36 disks in a single enclosure,...). Just stuff the interface card in (i.e Fibre Channel), attach it to the enclosure, configure the array (comes with disks), and go.
I'm a sysadmin, I know how users are like
Which is also why I know why professionals are users too. And that is why they don't know about the IT stuff. They rely on others to give them advice on the setup they need.
I more than realize this, and know that some independents will do a cost/benefit analysis. It may not be as complex as one done by a Fortune 500 company, but they're not "flying blind".
For those that do, they're taking a risk by not researching things themselves or paying for a proper consultant (what they're there for - give proper advice and recommendations to those that cannot do it themselves). If they can't understand it and can't bring themselves to contact someone who can advice them properly, they're going to end up paying for it in the end (either buy more than they need, or running in insufficient solution that's going to cost them their data, and both translate into real money).
It still amazes me how unbelievably easy it is to sell solutions to companies. You just need to explain why they need it, the pros, the cons, etc. and they'll go for it. Some don't but that's mostly because there isn't enough budget. Differences of say 100 USD is mostly considered to be nothing. They'll pay the extra 100USD if it is the better choice. It is something that is mostly a key part of their business so they want something that works properly. If it doesn't it will cost them a lot more.
A $100 here or there isn't much, but that estimate was also based on a single mechanical disk.
I definitely know what you're talking about with professionals listening to the sales pitch by whatever company they're on the phone with. But they don't realize what they're in for, and can easily be "over sold" tech that doesn't do what they need, and costs a fortune. I've seen this before professionally (i.e. user needs a modest DAS system, but end up buying a Fibre Channel solution that's way beyond their needs). This could cause a small company to go bankrupt, particularly if this purchase is followed by a lean period of work.
What I always try to remind people, is the corporate sales person is there to sell them something, even if it's not the right fit. A consultant doesn't have this sort of pressure, which allows them to advice to the correct solution within the specific parameters.
Consumer/home users do not think like that. They simply want something that is the cheapest. A good example would be Macs, most people will complain that a Dell/Acer is cheaper and buy that instead of the Mac. Even though the Mac is the better choice for them.
For consumers, I agree. Unfortunately, I see independent pros and SMB's use the same sort of thinking, and it's detrimental in the long run.
The old adage "You get what you pay for" certainly comes to mind, as I've seen it proven time and time again.
Now if you consider this mentality, this is where I see LaCie falling in at. They target the independent graphics pros, and sell the expensive monitors (they realize they need these, as well as the colorimeter). But in terms of storage, there's a serious gap in their product line. It goes from the consumer grade to the 12Big, and what they have in between, I'm not impressed with (BigQuadra's OK, but you can do a lot better; more importantly, there's nothing in the middle, such as an 8x disk solution, before one gets to the 12 disk gear).
Most of this type of user only needs to run a DAS system, not a NAS or SAN.
