Storage Management Strategies for the CIO
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INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY
Pre-sales activities and inking contracts are the pregame show with the real kickoff happening when the gear gets uncrated. Midrange vendors -- led by NetApp’s solid 6.74 for initial product quality -- are apparently doing a good job of creating a winning first impression, as the overall average for this category was second highest (just trailing the numbers for product reliability). Dell once again finished second with an equally impressive 6.68; HP tallied a 6.60 for a strong third-placing showing. NetApp scored highest for four of the six statements, with fifth-place HDS snagging the remaining two statements.
QUALITY AWARDS VI: INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY RANKINGS FOR MIDRANGE
ARRAYS
Enlarge QUALITY AWARDS VI: INITIAL PRODUCT QUALITY RANKINGS FOR MIDRANGE ARRAYS
diagram.
Breaking down the numbers
HDS’s 6.95 for “This product was installed without any defects” was the highest single statement score for all categories in the survey.
NetApp’s first-place finish was achieved with top scores for getting up and running quickly, requiring little vendor intervention, needing only a reasonable amount of professional services and ease of use.
All eight products totaled scores higher than 6.00, only the second time that has happened in six surveys.
PRODUCT FEATURES
Some claim the parity among midrange arrays is so great that there’s little difference in their features. That may be true for core capabilities, but there’s still considerable differentiation among vendor’s wares. NetApp won the product features category with a 6.63 score that was enough to squeak by strong showings by HDS (6.55) and Dell (6.52). NetApp scored highest on four of the seven features statements, including those for snapshot (6.82), mirroring (6.79) and replication (6.61) capabilities, which are acknowledged strengths of NetApp products.
QUALITY AWARDS VI: PRODUCT FEATURES RANKINGS FOR MIDRANGE ARRAYS
Enlarge QUALITY AWARDS VI: PRODUCT FEATURES RANKINGS FOR MIDRANGE ARRAYS diagram.
Breaking down the numbers
Second-place HDS had the highest statement score in the category for all products, a 6.88 for “This product’s capacity scales to meet my needs.”
Dell came in third, with top scores for overall satisfaction with features (6.71) and management features (6.63).
Along with the top three finishers, IBM had 6.00-plus scores for all category statements.
This was first published in September 2011
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