Now the VA is taking on another challenge: Migrating from an all-EMC solution to a multi-vendor storage system that uses different devices depending on how quickly data needs to be recovered.

The VA has awarded a $10 million contract to Vion, a storage systems integrator that will provide Hitachi Data Systems  products capable of storing 2 petabytes of data. Vion, a midsize reseller that is veteran-owned, beat out EMC for the one-year hardware and services contract.

"We have a combination of medical records and beneficiary records that could be called back up for consultations by physicians involved in a legal case," explains John Rucker, acting executive director of corporate data center operations for VA's Austin Information Technology Center. "We do have a lengthy storage requirement."

Neither EMC nor Vion would comment on the recent VA contract.

The last time the VA awarded a multi-million dollar storage deal was in 2002, and the award went to EMC. Since then, EMC has dominated the storage environment in VA's main data center in Austin as well as its backup data centers in Philadelphia and Chicago.

"We purchased the EMC Symmetrix systems for disaster recovery and continuity of operations," Rucker says. "It was a reaction in part to 9/11. Up until that time, we were a tape recovery set-up. After 9/11, we realized we needed another solution if people couldn't get on planes and fly tapes to Chicago or Philadelphia."

Now the VA is switching from a single-vendor to a multi-vendor approach, and it's facing the pros and cons of that decision. On the one hand, the agency is glad that it won't be reliant on one company for its mission-critical data storage.

"We won't be tied to any one particular vendor or any one particular technology," Rucker says. "Let's say EMC came up with a leapfrog technology over Hitachi. We're positioned where we can fit that into the mix."

However, the VA will need to buy new storage management software to oversee its EMC and Hitachi storage-area networks (SAN). VA also must invest in training for its staff of 10 dedicated storage administrators, who are well-versed in EMC technology.

It's a good idea for enterprises like VA to buy from more than one supplier for critical IT components including storage, even if it increases costs for integration, staffing and training, says Ray Bjorklund, senior vice president of FedSources, a market research firm that tracks U.S. government IT purchases.