IT Pros Vote 2018 Networking & Storage Brand Leaders
Cisco chosen Market Leader in four product categories; Dell EMC picks up three Market titles; Arista, Google, NetApp & Red Hat also take Market honors
SAN CLEMENTE, CA – April 5, 2018— 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 survey covering Networking & Storage products. IT professionals from around the world responded to the independent, non-sponsored annual survey in March 2018, asking which vendors they perceive to be leaders in these eleven categories:
Bare Metal Switch OS, Embedded Blade Server Networking, Enterprise File Sync and Sharing, Multi-Protocol Core Switches, Multi-Protocol Top-of-Rack Switches, Open Networking Switch (Bare Metal Switch), Scale out Object Storage Appliance, Scale out Object Storage Software, Scale-out File Storage, Servers for Software Defined Storage, WAN Optimization
“Although Enterprise IT giants mostly prefer to sell their branded products, they are carefully building brand equity for their open networking and bare metal products,” said Frank Berry, CEO and Sr. Analyst, IT Brand Pulse. “This is evidenced by IT pros selecting Arista and Dell EMC as market leaders for bare metal switch OS and open networking switches.”
NetApp
Scale-out File Storage
NetApp retained Market leadership for Scale-out File Storage, along with accolades for Performance, Reliability, and Innovation. Dell EMC was named Price Leader and finished second as Market Leader; while IBM walked away with Service & Support and rounded out the third market award.
“In 2018, digital transformation is only possible through innovative data management solutions that are performant and reliable in both data center and hybrid cloud environments. We are especially pleased to be recognized in the innovation category in back-to-back years, which reflects our mission to build future-ready solutions that fuel our customers’ digital transformation as they increasingly invest in artificial intelligence, machine learning, real-time analytics and other data-driven technologies,” said Jeff Baxter, Chief Evangelist, ONTAP at NetApp.
Red Hat
Scale-out Object Storage Software
In this competitive grouping with thirteen vendor choices, Red Hat was selected Market Leader and closed out all remaining achievements in this class – Price, Performance, Reliability, Service & Support, and Innovation. The number two and three market positions went to IBM/Cleversafe and Scality, respectively.
“Organizations are adopting object-storage to handle the needs of the modern data center. We are honored that Red Hat has once again been recognized as a leader in scale-out object storage software,” said Irshad Raihan, senior manager, Product Marketing, Storage, Red Hat. “Red Hat Ceph Storage is designed to offer a single, open, and unified platform to handle the web scale object storage for modern workloads often require. Managing data on distributed scale out clusters, Red Hat Ceph Storage can simultaneously lower the cost of storing enterprise data and enhance customers’ ability to efficiently, flexibly, and automatically manage this exponential data growth.”
Cisco
Embedded Blade Server Networking
Former runner-up in this section, Cisco, secured the Market Leader accolade this year along with honors for Performance, Reliability, and Innovation. After five consecutive years on top, Dell EMC dropped to the second market spot, but was able to hold onto Service & Support and Price; followed by HPE, which finished third overall.
Multi-Protocol Core Switches
Expanding this section from Ethernet to Multi-Protocol Core Switches, Cisco was voted Market Leader for the eighth consecutive year with over two thirds of the votes; all while completing the sweep for Price, Performance, Reliability, Service & Support, and Innovation. Following behind were Dell EMC and HPE as number two and three in the market category.
Multi-Protocol Top-of-Rack Switches
The ToR Switch segment has been expanded to Multi-Protocol as well, with Cisco winning over 65% of the votes to be named Market Leader (fifth year) and picked Price, Performance, Reliability, Service & Support, and Innovation. HPE and Dell EMC captured the next two shares of the market titles, in that order.
WAN Optimization
Cisco successfully defended its 2017 Market Leader designation for WAN Optimization while clinching Price, Performance, Reliability, Service & Support, and Innovation. Riverbed and Citrix landed in the same positions as last year with second and third place market honors.
Dell EMC
Open Networking Switch (Bare Metal Switch)
Dell EMC headed up all six leader categories in Open Networking Switch for the fourth time: Market, Price, Performance, Reliability, Service & Support, and Innovation. HPE concluded second all around, along with Quanta QCT placing in the top three.
Scale-out Object Storage Appliance
Dell EMC picked up the entire lot of Scale-Out Object Storage Appliance honors – Market, Price, Performance, Reliability, Service & Support, and Innovation – for the fifth straight year. NetApp and IBM garnered their own share of market votes, accordingly.
Servers for Software Defined Storage
Former runner-up, Dell EMC, became the 2018 Market Leader champ while sweeping the other award classes – Price, Performance, Reliability, Service & Support, and Innovation. Cisco dropped in market votes to second place, followed by HPE in third.
Arista
Bare Metal Switch OS
Arista repeated its Market Leader achievements from last year’s Bare Metal Switch OS and went on to claim Price, Performance, Reliability, Service & Support, and Innovation. Cumulus Networks and Big Switch ended up in the number two and three slots in the market.
Google
Enterprise File Synchronization & Sharing
As more vendors enter this sector, a new Market Leader emerged in Google; which also earned honors for Price, Reliability, and Innovation. Market runner-up, Microsoft, held on to Service & Support (and this time around added Performance Leader); leaving Dropbox, third place overall.
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. Voters 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: Alliant Energy – Allergan – Allstate Insurance – American National Insurance Company – Amkor Technology – Baird – BC Hydro – Big Lots Stores – Bloomberg – Boeing – BorgWarner – Boston University – BWAY Corp – Brinker International – British Airways – Caesars Entertainment – Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce – Cardinal Health – CareFirst – CBRE – CBS – Celanese Corp – Chanel – Cirque du Soleil – CIT Group – Colliers – Compass Minerals – Covéa Insurance – CPS Energy – Cox Enterprises – CSL Behring – CSS Industries – CUNA Mutual Group – DaVita – Delta Airlines – Delta Dental – DHL – Dignity Health – Dish Network – DLL Group – Eaton Vance – Encore Capital Group – Ensco – ExxonMobil – Ernst & Young – EverBank – Federal-Mogul – Flagstar Bank – First Acceptance Corporation – Foley & Lardner – Forest City Enterprises – Fox Studios – Fresenius – H. B. Fuller Company – Henry Schein – Herman Miller – HOK – Hess Corp – Hyatt Hotels Corporation – Jet Aviation – Johnson Controls – Kellogg – Konica Minolta Business Solutions – Lockheed Martin – Macy’s – McCarthy Holdings, Inc. – Mentor Graphics – MGM Studios – Mohawk Industries – Molina Health – Moneris – Morningstar – MSC Industrial Direct – MTA – M&T Bank – National Oilwell Varco – Navigant – Navistar International – Ohio State University – Optum – Orlando Utilities Commission – Parker Hannifin – Pernod Ricard – Philadelphia Gas Works – Pitney Bowes – Polycom – PPG Industries – Quicken Loans – Raytheon – Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. – Rich Products – Sherwin-Williams – Siemens Corp. – Spectrum Brands – Steelcase Inc. – Structure Tone – Stryker Corporation – Sun Life Financial – Sysco – Tailored Brands – TE Connectivity – The Hanover Insurance Group – TD Ameritrade – Thomson Reuters – Time Warner – Transamerica – Veolia – Verizon – Volvo Group – Wawanesa – Wellington Management Company – World Vision International – Xylem Inc. – Yale University – Yazaki…and 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 itbrandpulse.com.
CONTACT:
Alec Berry
Analyst
IT Brand Pulse
949-433-7798