TheInfoPro

Written by Marco Coulter, Research Director for Storage

Hewlett-Packard had a challenging month with strategy confusion and a new CEO. It would be a shame if this reflects unfairly on its storage business.

Originally published as a ThursdayTIP to the respondent network of TheInfoPro. Would you like to receive all of the ThursdayTIPs the minute they are released on a complimentary basis? Then join TheInfoPro’s respondent network.

The acquisition of 3PAR was a strong move for HP. Announced under an interim CEO in September 2010, HP received an immediate boost; TheInfoPro’s Wave 15 Storage Study moved HP ahead of NetApp to second most exciting vendor. Similarly, vulnerability was at its best in five years, with 76% of interviewees not considering switching away from HP, an improvement of 9% since the prior study. Respondents identified 3PAR’s benefit while showing concern for HP’s overall storage strategy.

• “I think that they did a good job with their purchase of 3PAR. I like that they have infused them with capital, but I am worried that they will screw 3PAR up. I would say that their sales force is their biggest weakness. They do not have much ‘bench’ strength; the sales force is very immature.” – storage pro at a large-enterprise financial services company
• “3PAR is a good acquisition, but they’ve lacked a roadmap of their own.” – storage pro at a large-enterprise materials/chemicals company
• “[3PAR is] small company that went out of their way to support and accommodate us. We’re afraid this will change under HP, but we’re hoping it won’t. Roadmap looks really exciting, and we’re hoping HP’s standing helps them plow into their roadmap.” – storage pro at a large-enterprise services (business/accounting/engineering) company

HP’s challenge? Spending intentions. Only 21% of those reviewing HP plan to increase spending with HP in 2011, continuing the downward trend from 44% in 2009.

While HP still brings in significantly large deals, some of that high-level spending went away in 2011. Matching that trend, HP shows below average for both the Fulfillment and Promise indexes on our Market Window of Customer Ratings. Clearly, the 3PAR acquisition effectively revived a lagging storage brand.

The Wave 16 Storage Study will be critical to watch as the impact of an unsettled month is already appearing in interviews:

• “It seems that [HP] are ‘imploding’!” – storage pro at a large-enterprise financial services company
• “HP makes bad move after bad move. Always in the wrong place at the wrong time.” – storage pro at a large-enterprise manufacturing company

Staying in touch with the real-time update and the final reports will be critical to understanding the impact of overall HP transitions on its storage business. Hopefully, we will see more comments along these lines:

• “[We're] 1,000% satisfied.” – storage pro at a large-enterprise healthcare/pharmaceuticals company

EMC is likely to benefit if there is an exodus from HP; 60% of those considering or maybe considering switching from HP identified EMC as the alternate vendor considered.

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Written by Marco Coulter, Research Director for Storage

Originally published as a ThursdayTIP to the respondent network of TheInfoPro. Would you like to receive all of the ThursdayTIPs the minute they are released on a complimentary basis? Then join TheInfoPro’s respondent network.

Storage tiers have existed since storage networking allowed shared storage, reducing cost by allowing different price/performance selections for data. Over the last year, the focus for autotiering moved within the array, exploiting the price/performance variations of different drive types: SSD, FC, SAS and SATA. Drive choices have been available for some time; it is the automation of tiering that is generating interest today. Below are a few examples of how your peers talk about the subject:

• “We have some tiering now. [We have] EMC VMAX as tier 1, we have IBM and NetApp rebranded, and VMAX has tiering in the box. Right now the thing our manager is pushing for is to determine whether tiering in a box is cost- effective, because if you have to grow a tier, you may need another engine.”
• “HDS’s VSP device does self-tiering and fits in a 19-inch rack.”

Compellent pioneered block level autotiering within the array as far back as 2005. The major vendors scrambled to include the technology on their roadmaps, with some developing it, while others acquired it like Dell (via Compellent), or HP (via 3PAR).

EMC came to market late, taking several release cycles to develop matching technology. Yet already, they are the leading vendor for this technology. Significantly, EMC has an overwhelming lead among respondents with pilot or other plans for autotiering. Coming from behind, EMC has redefined the segment and taken mindshare ownership.

Interest in autotiering is still experimental with most spending less than $50K. As 73% of current users are planning to spend more on the technology next year, we are clearly just at the beginning of its lifecycle.

Autotiering is not just a block prerogative. F5 Networks appear on short lists as well by delivering such capabilities in NAS environments. Some vendors like BlueArc are not yet appearing in significant numbers in our interviews, but are getting positive feedback like the following statements:

• “F5 for ‘ILM’ auto-tiering.”
• “I like [BlueArc's] multitiered file systems.”

TheInfoPro Recommendation: IT professionals should make sure their preferred vendors are offering this technology for SAN and NAS environments, but verify that the cost savings generated will not be consumed by overheads of the technology and the management that is sometimes required.

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By: Philip Alsop
03 February 2010 | Storage Networking Solutions – Europe | Original Article

TheInfoPro Wave 13 Storage Study Identifies Thin Provisioning as One of the Hottest Technologies in Storage. …

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Storage resource management (SRM) technologies make a comeback within Fortune 1000 and midsize enterprises as a means to increase utilization during economic slump

New York – June 15, 2009 – TheInfoPro, an independent research company for the IT industry, announced today that findings from its most recent Storage Study reflect that storage organizations have refocused their efforts on SRM technologies in lieu of purchasing new storage …

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Enterprise Organizations Indicate a Hazy Short-term Future for Blade Servers, Though Brighter Longer Term – New Research from TheInfoPro

Nearly 40% of enterprise organizations project that over 75% of all new servers installed in 2010 will be blade-based.

NEW YORK, NY, August 18, 2008 – TheInfoPro (TIP), www.theinfopro.$ST_net, an independent research network and leading supplier of market intelligence for the Information Technology (IT) industry, today announced that by 2010, providers of blade servers will see a huge turnaround in a market that’s currently stagnant and that has witnessed a steady softening in demand over the past year. According to Wave 6 of the Servers Study, 31% of respondents currently express that they are skeptical and have little interest in blade servers or that blade servers don’t apply to them. However, by 2010, nearly 40% of enterprises project that over 75% of all new servers installed will be blade-based.

To view a rich media presentation of findings, visit: http://www.brainshark.com/theinfopro/serv-pr1

“Because of the recent focus on reducing data center carbon footprints and the implementation of virtualization to accomplish this reduction, blade servers have been pushed to the back burner” says Bob Gill, Managing Director of Server research for TheInfoPro. “The increased density of blades, coupled with concerns over environmental issues such as concentrated heat output, are among the key reasons that organizations have put off procuring blade servers.”

Key highlights on the state of the current blade server market:

Forty-six percent (46%) of Server pros believe that blades are critical or valuable to their current business objectives, which is far lower than the 58% in Wave 5. The percentage that said that blades didn’t apply or that they had no interest continued to hover at around 25% of the respondent base, as users continue to take a “wait and see” attitude toward blades.
The percentage of end users that do not see a role for blades over the long term remains 25%, rather than having diminished over time. It’s important to note that 124 enterprises participated in the blade research this wave, eliminating the possibility for small-sample bias.
The market for blades remains largely untapped, with 20% reporting that none are currently installed and with another 25% indicating that blades make up between 1% and 5% of all servers.
Key highlights on the future of the blade server market:

Longer term, the prospect for blades brightens, with nearly 40% of enterprises projecting that over 75% of all new servers installed in 2010 will be blade-based.
While over 40% report that they currently do not have any blades hosting virtualization, nearly 40% expect that over 75% of their blades will be virtual hosts by 2010.
About The Study
Over 160 one-on-one, hour-long interviews were conducted with Fortune 1000 and Midsize Enterprise end users for the Wave 6 Server Study, providing commentary and insight on their Server adoption plans, management strategies, and vendor performance with regard to key technologies.

Technology providers that were mentioned throughout the study include: 3PAR, Acronis, Agami, AMD, APC, Aperture Technologies, Attachmate, Avocent, BigFix, Blade Network Technologies, Blue Coat, BMC Software, Brocade, CA, Cisco, Citrix, CommVault, Compellent, Configuresoft, Data Domain, Dell, Determina, Egenera, EMC, Emulex, Extreme Networks, F5 Networks, Foundry Networks, Fujitsu Siemens, GFI, HDS, HP, IBM, Intel, Ipswitch, Juniper, Linux, LSI Logic, Lumension, Managed Objects, Microsoft, Nagios, NetApp, Netezza, Nortel, Novell, ONStor, OPNET, Opsware, Oracle, Parallels, QLogic, Quest Software, Rackable Systems, Red Hat, Riverbed, SAP, Shavlik, SolarWinds, Sun, SUSE, Symantec, Vizioncore, VMware, Wyse Technology and Xen.

About TheInfoPro
TheInfoPro (TIP) is the only independent research network for the Information Technology (IT) industry. Created in 2002 by alumni of Gartner, EMC, Giga, and Bell Labs, TIP investigates key IT sectors – Networking, Information Security, Servers, Storage, and Sourcing – via a comprehensive in-depth interview process. Through a peer network of over 1800 of the world’s largest buyers and users of IT – including Citigroup, FedEx, McGraw-Hill, MasterCard, and Harvard University – TIP delivers detailed budget, vendor performance and technology roadmap data without spin or bias. Known as the voice of the customer, TIP helps IT professionals, technology providers, and institutional investors make sound decisions on technologies, vendor relationships and investments. To learn more, visit www.theinfopro.net or call 1-212-672-0010

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