"Then I go through and pick the vendor I like the most. I tell them up front I am going to pick a preferred vendor and will go into a negotiation with them and, if that negotiation falls over, I will contact the others."

During the negotiation with your chosen vendor it is important to give feedback to tell them what they did wrong and where they could improve because they may just be able to adjust the proposal and be your best choice. Once this phase is over, it is time to go onto final configurations, pricing terms and conditions.

"If it is something you really like, sign the deal and tell everyone they are out. If not, you move onto number two vendor," McIsaac said. "Possibly, the most important thing to negotiate around is capacity upgrades. Where vendors make a lot of their money is they sell you stuff at a reasonable price but the upgrade prices are very high. I like to have what you might like to call a storage options contract."

This represents the right to buy but not the obligation. So when your storage needs grow you will have a pre-negotiated price.