When a new vehicle is being planned and designed, engineers, system architects, program managers, and acquisition personnel typically debate three procurement options for the subsystems:
- Design their own subsystem and build it themselves
- Have a contractor build the subsystem
- Locate and buy a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) subsystem
Each approach may get you to the same goal, but each has positive and negative aspects along the way. Those decisions can only be made internally. The white paper Data-At-Rest Build vs. Buy Considerations for Deployed Storage Devices suggests some considerations that should be introduced in any such debate or trade study.
The white paper focuses on data at rest (DAR) devices known as network attached storage (NAS) or network file servers. These network attached storage devices are Ethernet-based and allow network clients to use the device as local storage. A network attached storage example is shown in Figure 1.
This blog focuses on one of those considerations: flexibility. The other considerations are lead time, loaners, encryption, quality, reliability, export, cost, and risk. The perspective is that of a defense contractor in the United States. Register/login to learn more.