2015 Innovation Leader Awards-Voted by IT Pros – Awards at Flash Memory Summit

Innovation Leaders Voted by IT Professionals for Flash Storage

Santa Clara, CA – August 12, 2015 – IT Brand Pulse, a trusted source for research, data and analysis about data center infrastructure, will be honoring 2015 Innovation Leaders—as voted by IT pros in thirteen Flash Storage product categories—at Flash Memory Summit on Wednesday, August 12, 2015 (Santa Clara Convention Center).

In addition, annual survey respondents chose two companies for special achievement awards for Contributions to Flash Innovation over the past five years.

“The IT Brand Pulse leader awards reflect the judgment of major customers and key IT personnel at important data centers. They are the only awards based on the experience of those who actually buy and use the products,” said Dr. Lance Leventhal, FMS program chairperson. “Regular surveys assure that the responses are recent and up-to-date. Receiving an IT Brand Pulse award shows that a company is doing the job where it really counts – in the field!”

The 2015 Innovation Leader awards presentation will take place in two parts:

2015 Special Achievement Awards – Contributions to Flash Innovation (2010-2015)
11:30 a.m. – Mission City Ballroom (before keynote)
AND
2015 Flash Storage Innovation Leader Awards (thirteen product categories)
5:30 p.m. – IT Brand Pulse Stage/FMS Theatre II (#325 in Exhibit Hall)

Survey Highlights

In the annual Flash Storage surveys (conducted June 2015), IT professionals selected two companies for special achievement honors for their Contributions to Innovation:

When respondents were asked, “Who contributed most to Innovation in 3D NAND Flash over the last five years (2010 – 2015)”?, the popular vote went to Samsung, with Intel as runner-up and SanDisk, in third.
“We are thrilled any time the market value of our products and technologies is widely recognized, but the most rewarding recognition is that which is voted upon by our customers, as is the case with this special achievement award,” said Jim Elliott, Corporate Vice President, Samsung Semiconductor, Inc. “After years of R&D effort to pioneer V-NAND and propel the industry into 3D NAND, we are delighted to be recognized as its top innovator industry-wide,” he added.

For the second question, “Who contributed most to Innovation in Deployment of Flash Storage over the last five years (2010 – 2015)?”, the winning choice was LinkedIn, followed by Dropbox and Salesforce.

The other companies that stood out in the minds of global IT pros for innovation in the thirteen 2015 Flash Storage categories include:

Dell Storage – 2015 Innovation Leader for All Flash iSCSI Arrays
HP – 2015 Innovation Leader for All Flash Converged Systems
IBM – 2015 Innovation Leader for All Flash Fibre Channel Array
Intel – 2015 Innovation Leader for SSD Controller Chips
NetApp – 2015 Innovation Leader for All Flash NAS Arrays, All Flash Unified SAN/NAS Arrays, and All Flash InfiniBand Arrays
Nimble Storage – 2015 Innovation Leader for Hybrid HDD/SSD Arrays
Nutanix – 2015 Innovation Leader for All Flash Hyperconverged Systems
Samsung – 2015 Innovation Leader for SAS/SATA SSD Modules
SanDisk – 2015 Innovation Leader for Memory Channel Storage, All Flash PCIe Adapters and Flash Caching Software

“The premier flash memory event of the year will be highlighted by an award to one company who IT Pros picked as an innovation leader for the 4^th consecutive year,” said Frank Berry, CEO and Senior Analyst, IT Brand Pulse. “We’ll also present innovation awards to companies recognized by voters for special achievements, as well as important new product categories such as all-flash hyperconverged systems”.

IT Brand Leader Surveys

IT Brand Pulse awards are the symbols for brand leadership. Winners are voted by IT pros in surveys that are independent, non-sponsored research. The surveys are designed to measure the pulse of brand leadership in specific product categories. Within each product category, respondents choose the overall market leader, as well as the leader in innovation, performance, reliability, price and service and support. Respondents are provided with a category description at the start of each product section, a randomized choice of vendor answers, and the ability to write-in a vendor, if not listed.

Respondents to our surveys included (select list): AT&T – Server Administrator/Architect; Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) – Storage Administrator/Architect; Boeing – Data Center Manager; Booz Allen Hamilton – Network Security Architect; CalPERS, State of CA – Network Administrator/Architect; Caterpillar – Server Administrator/Architect; Citigroup – Network Administrator/Architect; City of Los Angeles – IT Manager/Director; Delta Airlines – Server Administrator/Architect; Duke University – IT Manager/Director; EarthLink – Server Administrator/Architect; Environmental Protection Agency – Network Administrator/Architect; ExxonMobil – Network Administrator/Architect; Fermilab – Network Administrator/Architect; Ford Motor Company – Network Administrator/Architect; GE – IT Manager/Director; General Dynamics – Network Administrator/Architect; General Motors – Server Administrator/Architect; Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab – IT Manager/Director; JP Morgan – IT Manager/Director; Lockheed Martin – IT Manager/Director; Los Alamos National Lab (LANL) – Network Administrator/Architect; Lowe’s – Storage Administrator/Architect; Mattel Inc.- IT Manager/Director; Morgan Stanley – Network Administrator/Architect; NASA – IT Manager/Director; National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) – Network Administrator/Architect; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) – IT Manager/Director; Northrop Grumman – Network Administrator/Architect; Oppenheimer – Executive/Management; PepsiCo – Storage Administrator/Architect; Porsche Cars North America – Network Administrator/Architect; REI – Server Administrator/Architect; Sandia National Labs – Network Administrator/Architect; Shell – Storage Administrator/Architect; Social Security Administration (SSA) – Server Administrator/Architect; Stanford University – Network Administrator/Architect; Staples – Network Administrator/Architect; Target – IT Manager/Director; The University of Chicago – Server Administrator/Architect; Thomson Reuters -Server Administrator/Architect; T-Mobile – Data Center Manager; Transamerica – Storage Administrator/Architect; UBS – Executive/Management; UCLA – IT Manager/Director; United Airlines – Network Administrator/Architect; Universal Parks and Resort – IT Manager/Director; University Of Michigan- Data Center Manager; University of Michigan Medical School – IT Manager/Director; University of Notre Dame – Storage Administrator/Architect; USC – Network Administrator/Architect; Verizon – Network Administrator/Architect; Yale University – IT Manager/Director…among many others.

About IT Brand Pulse

IT Brand Pulse is a trusted source of research, data and analysis about private, public and hybrid cloud IT infrastructure, including servers, storage, networking and operating platforms. Learn more at www.itbrandpulse.com.

CONTACT:
Cheryl Parker, Director/Sr. Analyst
IT Brand Pulse
949-713-2313
[email protected]
www.itbrandpulse.com