Storage Management Strategies for the CIO
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Initial product quality
NetApp
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apparently knows that a good first impression can go a long way; its 6.79 in the initial
product quality category was its highest score overall and represented its largest margin of
victory. It’s also the highest rating we’ve ever seen for enterprise arrays in this category.
Still, IBM’s 6.63 wasn’t all that far behind and good enough for second (and the third best ever
recorded); Hitachi’s 6.45 gave it another third-place finish. NetApp had the high scores on five of
the six category statements to highlight an usually consistent performance, with statement scores
ranging from 6.63 to 6.88.
Breaking down the numbers:
- NetApp had a pair of 6.89s for “This product is easy to use” and for not requiring an unusual amount of professional services help.
- “This product delivers good value for the money” is one of the key statements on the entire survey, and NetApp again prevailed with a 6.88; Hitachi was next highest at 6.66.
- The average for all the products in the initial product quality category was a second-best-ever 6.46.
Key statistic:
Array deployments must be getting easier; the best across-the-board score was a 6.58 for “I am satisfied with the level of professional services this product requires.”
Product features
Eventually, any array evaluation comes down to features, and NetApp doesn’t fall short by that measure either, posting top marks for five of the seven statements in this category. NetApp was again very consistent, but showed particular muscle with a 6.98 for replication features and a 6.89 for mirroring features. IBM was tops for the other two statements, including a 7.00 for “Overall, this product’s features meet my needs.” That 7.00 score was one of only two 7.00-or-better statement scores for all categories and all vendors in the survey.
Breaking down the numbers:
- With data growing at unprecedented levels, scaling is an important issue; NetApp’s 6.71 for capacity scaling was effectively tied by IBM’s 6.70, but all vendors fared well, including a solid 6.60 for EMC.
- IBM’s second statement win was a 6.68 (to NetApp’s 6.57) for interoperability with other vendors’ products.
- Vendors seem to be winning the speeds, feeds and specs race, as the highest average score for all vendors was 6.63 for features meeting users’ needs.
Key statistic:
For seven Quality Awards for Enterprise Arrays, no vendor has ever been the overall winner without scoring highest in the product features category.
This was first published in March 2012
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