IT Pros Select 2016 Cloud and On-Premise Brand Leaders

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Amazon Web Services (AWS) first in five product categories;
VMware & EMC each get three; Cisco, HPE, Microsoft, Veeam also selected as Market Leaders


IT Brand Pulse, a trusted source for research, data and analysis about data center infrastructure, today announced the results of the recent IT brand leader surveys covering Cloud Service and On-Premise Provider products.

IT Pros from around the world responded to the independent, non-sponsored survey in May 2016 and were asked which vendors they perceive as the leader among Cloud Service providers and to vote for the best-of-the-best when compared to On-Premise providers in the following categories:

“Comparing survey results for cloud service versus cloud service, VMware and Microsoft are the only vendors to join AWS on the leaderboard,” said Frank Berry, CEO and Analyst at IT Brand Pulse. “Comparing cloud services to similar on-premise offerings, IT professionals selected enterprise vendors as overall market leaders for every product category, with AWS emerging for specific products as a price, service & support and innovation leader.”

Cloud Survey Highlights

Respondents were presented with seven various cloud service products and AWS swept all leader awards for five of the offerings—a near repeat of the last survey pitting cloud service providers against one another. Here is how AWS stacked up:

  • For Cloud Backup & Archive as a Service, Cloud Dedicated Enterprise Servers, Cloud Enterprise Class Storage, and Cloud Virtual Servers, AWS emerged for the second time as the IT pros’ choice for Market, Price, Performance, Reliability, Service & Support, and Innovation leader.
  • In a new category added to this year’s cloud survey, AWS picked up all six awards for Cloud SSD Storage (Market, Price, Performance, Reliability, Service & Support, and Innovation).
  • Coming in behind AWS in voting for Market Leader:
    • Cloud Backup & Archive as a Service – Microsoft 2nd, VMware 3rd
    • Cloud Enterprise Class Storage and Cloud SSD Storage – Microsoft 2nd, Google 3rd
    • Cloud Dedicated Enterprise Servers – VMware 2nd,  Rackspace 3rd
    • Cloud Virtual Servers –  VMware 2nd,  Microsoft 3rd

Microsoft headed up the Cloud Unified Communications Market Leader field and, according to survey respondents, earned Price, Performance, Reliability, Service & Support, and Innovation leadership too. Google and Amazon rounded out second and third, respectively.

In the Cloud Virtual Desktop category, VMware captured the all-around title by being named Market, Price, Performance, Reliability, Service & Support, and Innovation leader. VMware finished in front of previous winner AWS, with Microsoft filling in the number three spot.

May 2016 winners chart2

Cloud vs. On-Premise Survey Highlights

The second group of surveys measured IT pro perceptions of cloud services vs. comparable on-premise products by challenging them to choose the best-of-the-best. The results were consistent; in every case, the on-premise providers came out on top as overall Market Leaders.

VMware proved to be the only vendor to extend its Market Leader reach across both cloud and on-premise in this year’s survey, sweeping On-Premise vs. Cloud Virtual Desktop (as it did with Cloud Virtual Desktop) and On-Premise vs. Cloud Virtual Servers. Here is what the voting expressed:

  • For the first time in this type of comparison survey, VMware pulled in first and third place Market Leader in the same category (On-Premise vs. Cloud Virtual Desktop) with its software (1st) and cloud (3rd) products. Citrix slid in between to take second. VMware was also selected Price, Performance, Reliability, Service & Support, and Innovation leader.
  • For On-Premise vs. Cloud Virtual Servers, VMware surpassed number two and three Market Leaders AWS and Microsoft (software), in that order, and was chosen as Price, Performance, Reliability, Service & Support, and Innovation leader.

EMC carried its Market leadership across two survey categories:  On-Premise vs. Cloud Enterprise Class Storage and On-Premise vs. Cloud SSD Storage, and tied for the number one position (with Veeam) in On-Premise vs. Cloud Backup & Archive as a Service. Results showed:

  • On-Premise vs. Cloud SSD Storage – EMC (Market, Performance, Reliability, Service & Support, Innovation); Pure Storage (Price; runner-up Market Leader, ahead of HPE)
  • On-Premise vs. Cloud Enterprise Class Storage – EMC (Market, Performance, Reliability); AWS (Price, Service & Support, Innovation; 2rd place Market Leader, before NetApp)
  • On-Premise vs. Cloud Backup & Archive as a Service – EMC and Veeam (tied for Market Leader); EMC (Performance, Reliability); AWS (Price, Service & Support, Innovation; 3rd place Market Leader)

Veeam made its first-ever brand leader entry into the IT Brand Pulse surveys, sharing the On-Premise vs. Cloud Backup & Archive as a Service Market Leader title with EMC. In a rare tie, respondents awarded the Market Leader honor to both the Swiss-based, privately held (and significantly smaller) Veeam and the storage giant EMC.

HPE continued to be a traditional server favorite among IT professionals, as voters decided to put them first as the Market Leader for On-Premise vs. Cloud Dedicated Enterprise Servers.  AWS (Price and Service & Support leader) was second, followed by VMware. HPE also scored Performance, Reliability, and Innovation titles.

Cisco collected the entire set of six brand leader awards for On-Premise vs. Cloud Unified Communications: Market, Price, Performance, Reliability, Service & Support, and Innovation. Microsoft wrapped up the number two slot, with Avaya, third.

IT Brand Leader Surveys
IT Brand Pulse awards are the symbols for brand leadership. Winners are voted by global 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.

Global IT Pro respondents to recent surveys include:

20th Century Fox – Aetna – American Airlines – American Express – AT&T – Bank of America – Becton Dickinson – Bhabha Atomic Research Ctr – Blue Cross-Blue Shield (BCBSA) – Boeing – Boston Scientific – British Columbia Lottery  – Burger King – Caltech – Caterpillar – Cineca – Citigroup – City of L.A. –  ComEd – Cox Communications – C.R. BARD – Daybreak Game Co. (Sony Online Entertainment) – Delta Airlines – Delta Dental  – Detroit Medical Ctr –  Ernst & Young  – ESPN – Expedia – ExxonMobil – FAA – FedEx – Ford Motor Co. – GE – General Dynamics – General Motors – Grupo Terra – Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab – J. M. Smucker Co. – JP Morgan – Lockheed Martin – Los Alamos National Lab (LANL) – Lowe’s – LRZ – Macys – Michael Kors – MIT – Morgan Stanley – NASA – Nationwide Insurance –  NYC Transportation – Northrop Grumman – Oppenheimer – Optum – PepsiCo – Perrigo – PPG Industries – Porsche Cars N.A. – Prudential – REI – Ricoh – SAIC – Shell – Siemens  – Stanford University – Staples – Target – Thomson Reuters – T-Mobile – Torchmark – Transamerica – UBS – UPS – UNFCU – United Airlines – Universal Parks & Resorts – USC – U.S. Dept. of Commerce – Verizon – Vonage – Walmart – Weizmann Institute of Science..& many more.

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 & Senior AnaIyst, End User Research
IT Brand Pulse
949-713-2313
www.itbrandpulse.com