ducati's are fairly reliable for the most part... if your ducati proves to be unreliable the blame will most likely rest on either the service technicians, the service managers, the area dealer reps, and/or ducati north america customer service reps' inabilities/lack of motivation to follow through a task or any combination there of.
oh yeah keep in mind the history of the particular model that captures your fancy.... which include but are not limited to flakey rockers, leaking batteries, cracked frames, cracked swingarms, cracked headstuds, loose flywheel nuts, loose oil galley plugs, poor wiring, bad clutch slaves, etc...