2014 On-Premise Provider vs. Cloud Service Provider: IT Pros Choose the Best-of-the-Best in Five Categories

Enterprise Backup, Dedicated Servers, Virtual Servers, Virtual Desktops & Networked Storage

San Diego, CA – September 30, 2014 – IT Brand Pulse, a trusted source for research, data and analysis about data center infrastructure, today launched a research program to measure IT pro perceptions of comparable offerings from on-premise providers vs. cloud service providers. In three sets of independent, non-sponsored surveys, IT Pros from around the world voted for 1) the best among on-premise providers, 2) the best among cloud service providers, and 3) the best-of-the best among on-premise and cloud service providers grouped together. The product categories covered in the 2014 On-Premise IT and Cloud Service Brand Leader Survey were Enterprise Backup, Dedicated Servers, Virtual Servers, Virtual Desktops and Networked Storage. The complete survey data and analysis is available in the 100-page Q3 2014 On-Premise vs. Cloud IT Brand Leader Report.

“Cloud service providers are competing against one another-and head-to-head against on-premise implementations-with one or the other emerging as the best-of-best,” said Frank Berry, CEO and Analyst at IT Brand Pulse. “Based on the results of our recent surveys, IT pros perceive on-premise providers as best in 28 of 30 brand leader categories. However, AWS and/or Microsoft Azure- who were just behind the on-premise leaders-have ascended firmly into the top three.”

The Best of the Best

In a field of traditional server vendors and cloud service providers, IT pro respondents overwhelmingly selected HP as the Market Leader for Dedicated Enterprise Server. Unexpectedly, AWS leap-frogged nearly everyone in the pack; taking second or third for leadership in all six categories: Market, Price, Reliability, Performance, Service & Support and Innovation. “HP delivers workload-optimized compute resources that offer significant and differentiated value in the form of business outcomes to organizations, small or large,” said Peter Evans, vice president, Global Marketing, HP Servers. “HP is honored to be recognized by our customers for our commitment to compute, and we will continue to innovate so that we can provide the most reliable, high performing, and cost-effective solutions.”
Virtual servers sit at the core of data center architectures, and thus are a hotly contested arena for both on-premise and cloud service providers. With the highest scores in any of these surveys, up to 80% of IT professionals chose VMware as the Market Leader for Virtual Servers and tops in the five remaining categories of Price, Performance, Reliability, Service & Support and Innovation. Placing second and third in the Market Leader voting for Virtual Server were Amazon (AWS) and Microsoft Azure, with Microsoft Azure cloud service getting more votes than their on-premise offering Microsoft Hyper-V. If you would like to learn more about Microsoft Azure, you might want to do some research into the az 300 exam. This Microsoft certification can help you to deepen your knowledge of Azure administration, Azure development, and DevOps.
Storage giant EMC emerged as the 2014 Market Leader for Enterprise Backup against the rivalry of on-premise and other cloud service providers. Representing the only two wins for cloud service providers, AWS was named the Service & Support Leader and Innovation Leader for Enterprise Backup. Symantec and CommVault finished second and third in voting for Market Leader, respectively.
IT Pros also favored EMC as the Market, Performance, Reliability and Service & Support Leader for Enterprise Networked Storage versus a long list of on-premise and cloud service challengers. NetApp was the respondents’ pick as Innovation Leader, and Dell as Price Leader. AWS rounded out the top three vote getters for Market Leader, and placed a strong second for Innovation Leader.
As deployment of Virtual Desktops moves into the mainstream, competition for on-premise VDI products and cloud services is fierce. In the best-of-the-best survey for this category, VMware, Citrix, AWS, and Microsoft Azure placed first through fourth in all six categories of brand leadership. Once again, Microsoft Azure out-polled its on-premise offering Microsoft VDI.

The Best of the Cloud Service Providers

Amazon (AWS) swept all six brand leader categories for each of the five cloud services surveyed: Cloud Backup, Cloud Enterprise Networked Storage, Cloud Dedicated Enterprise Server, Cloud Virtual Server, and Cloud Virtual Desktop. Google and Microsoft Azure came in second and third in voting for Market Leader for every product category, with the exception being in Cloud Virtual Desktop, where Microsoft Azure placed second and Google third. Those looking for a dedicated server might also be interested in something like Hostiserver.

Survey Results

Click to view the market leader charts for the following categories: On-Premise Backup, On-Premise Enterprise Networked Storage, On-Premise Dedicated Enterprise Server, On-Premise Virtual Server, On-Premise Virtual Desktop, Cloud Backup, Cloud Enterprise Networked Storage, Cloud Dedicated Enterprise Server, Cloud Virtual Server, Cloud Virtual Desktop, Overall Backup (On- Premise/Cloud), Overall Enterprise Networked Storage (On-Premise/Cloud), Overall Dedicated Enterprise Server (On- Premise/Cloud). Survey conducted August 2014.

IT Professionals Who Respond to Our Surveys

Respondents to our surveys have included: 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.

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 price, performance, reliability, service and support, and innovation. 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.

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.