That's not an inherently bad thing. Satisfaction with the status quo breeds complacency, which will squelch progress faster than you can say "standardized external disk subsystem." Moreover, even though dissatisfaction tends to arise when some party isn't performing up to speed or living up to his end of a particular bargain, it can still be a good thing. As long as it's a vendor that's dissatisfied.

Take, for example, the announcement last week of an agreement between EMC and Intel, under which Intel will sell rebranded low-end EMC disk arrays. It's hard to imagine that EMC would have forged that agreement if it was totally satisfied with its existing arrangement with Dell to resell low-end storage systems.

Andrew Monshaw, general manager of systems storage at IBM, said in an interview with Computerworld's Lucas Mearian last week that the Intel deal marks the beginning of the end of EMC's pact with Dell. "I think perhaps we're seeing our first signs of divorce here," he said.

Of course, that's wishful thinking on IBM's part. EMC and Dell are making a ton of money from their relationship, so they'll stay together for the sake of the bucks. But the Intel deal certainly indicates that EMC is antsy enough about Dell to want to hedge its bets. Whatever dissatisfaction lies there has created an alternative that many users who are disenchanted with Dell's customer service performance will no doubt embrace.

That's not to say that EMC doesn't have its own disenchanted users to deal with. Oliver Fischer-Samano, IT director at Baerlocher Productions USA, told Mearian last week that he has refused to buy small storage systems from EMC in the past because its sales reps soured him on the company. His problem isn't with the channel, but with EMC itself, which he finds "very arrogant."