This step can usually be split in two ways -- specify the requirements through a request for tender. Or do a request for proposals. McIsaac prefers the latter as it allows the organisation to evaluate a much broader range of solutions.

"Take your storage strategy document and say, 'here are my requirements, we have the following current systems, capacity, servers and applications -- it looks like this'," McIsaac said.

"You tell me the actual configuration of your stuff using all this new innovation you have got, using all the latest stuff that I don't know about."

The vendors should come back with a proposal in the allotted time. It is harder to assess a proposal as opposed to a specified request for tender, McIsaac said, but it is worth going down this path.