Intel’s latest (35nm NAND) SSD shipments were halted today because a problem was identified when modifying BIOS passwords (see IT PRO story). At least they gave a timeframe for a fix – a couple of weeks.
The real question is can products be tested sufficiently these days to insure they work in the field. Many companies today will ship product to end-user beta testers to work out the bugs before the product reaches the field. But beta-testing has got to be complemented with active product testing and validation. As such, unless you plan to get 100s or perhaps 1000s of beta testers you could have a serious problem with field deployment.
And therein lies the problem, software products are relatively cheap and easy to beta test, just set up a download site and have at it. But with hardware products beta testing actually involves sending product to end-users which costs quite a bit more $’s to support. So I understand why Intel might be having problems with field deployment.
So if you can’t beta test hardware products as easily as software – then you have to have a much more effective test process. Functional testing and validation is more of an art than a science and can cost significant $’s and more importantly, time. All of which brings us back to some form of beta testing.
Perhaps Intel could use their own employees as beta testers rotating new hardware products from one organization to another, over time to get some variability in the use of a new product. Many companies use their new product hardware extensively in their own data centers to validate functionality prior to shipment. In the case of Intel’s SSD drives these could be placed in the in-numberable servers/desktops that Intel no-doubt has throughout it’s corporation.
One can argue whether beta testing takes longer than extensive functional testing. However given today’s diverse deployments, I believe beta testing can be a more cost effective process when done well.
Intel is probably trying to figure out just what went wrong in their overall testing process today. I am sure, given their history, they will do better next time.