London, ON 26, March, 2012 – Info-Tech Research Group’s recently released Consolidated Storage Vendor Landscape report names Dell, NetApp, EMC and HP as market Champions. The report states that the only constant in enterprise storage seems to be that we always need more. Storage vendors are adding more capacity and Input/Output Operations Per Second (IOPS) as densely-packed virtual machine infrastructures drive more traffic to disk. The amount of data is growing exponentially, with some estimates indicating an increase of 20 to 30 times over the next ten years.
“The rising use of solid state drives (SSDs) in midrange consolidated storage is a good example of where utilization features make a difference,” said John Sloan, Lead Research Analyst, Info-Tech Research Group. “SSDs are a huge IOPS boost but they also are very expensive on a cost per terabyte basis. With auto-tiering you can provision less storage in the expensive solutions because only important data blocks are stored there. The rest of the data can be moved to a cheaper storage area. If you’re going to have to pay for SSDs you want to know you are getting optimal utilization of that expensive storage.”
Ranking as a Champion in this report, Dell previously focused solely on the SMB market. Their recent purchase of Compellent, the pioneer of auto-tiering, has allowed them to move up market. With Compellent’s strong enterprise storage solution and their flagship EqualLogic, Dell now addresses the needs of the SMB to large enterprise.
NetApp is recognized as a leader in offering flexible solutions in this report. Also a Champion, its innovative line of unified storage has one of the highest scores on the report’s advanced features evaluation. Strong replication capabilities and virtual integration, along with a newly revamped management interface make NetApp a standout solution.
EMC, a market leader and trendsetter in the storage market, is also listed as a Champion in the report. They have a strong portfolio and own the majority of VMware, which allows them to cater to a wide demographic. The innovative organization offers a rich set of advanced features, including auto-tiering, SSD storage tiers, deduplication and thin provisioning.
HP is also ranked as a Champion in the report. They offer high performance gear for the enterprise and flexible solutions for the mid-market. HP’s purchase of 3Par provides it with a solid, cloud-ready solution for enterprise companies to fill out a portfolio that builds on its LeftHand arrays that helped reestablish HP as a storage leader in entry-level and mid-range. Advanced features such as clustered iSCSI servers and thin provisioning at a competitive price point make HP’s solution an attractive buy and gained them the Value Award in the report.
For the full list of Info-Tech Research Group’s recommendations for selecting a Consolidated Storage vendor, visit: http://www.infotech.com/research/ss/select-a-solid-foundation-for-the-consolidated-infrastructure
Info-Tech Research Group Vendor Landscape reports recognize outstanding vendors in the technology marketplace. Assessing vendors by the strength of their offering and their strategy for the enterprise, Info-Tech Research Group Vendor Landscapes pay tribute to the contribution of exceptional vendors in a particular category.
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With a paid membership of over 25,000 members worldwide, Info-Tech Research Group (www.infotech.com) is the global leader in providing tactical, practical Information Technology research and analysis. Info-Tech Research Group has a fourteen-year history of delivering quality research and is North America's fastest growing full-service IT analyst firm.