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Initial product quality
Our initial quality section asks users to tell us how easy a system is to set up, configure and get running. Given that HDS and its OEM partners, Sun and HP, finished 1-2-3 in this category, it's fair to say HDS delivers a very favorable out-of-the-box experience (see "Initial product quality" PDF). "The process is very, very smooth," says Tosti at TD Bank Financial Group of HDS' installation procedures, which includes doing everything up to disk formatting.
HDS got its highest score in this category (6.62) for the statement "This product was installed without defects." HP (6.32) also scored well on that statement, but NetApp (6.24) snuck past Sun (6.05). NetApp, known for easy-to-use NAS appliances, scored well on "This product is easy to use" (6.19), but was second to HDS (6.39). IBM was the only vendor that didn't receive a 6.0 or higher for any statement in this category.
So which vendor offers the best value for the money in the opinion of our readers? Sun, by a whisker. Sun users gave the company a 6.41 for "This product delivers good value for the money," barely edging out HDS' 6.40. HP was a distant third (5.87), followed by EMC (5.70), NetApp (5.66) and IBM (5.54).
Click here for a Ranking of enterprise arrays III (PDF).
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Product reliability
"We've never lost data," says Fisher about the State of NJ's HDS systems. "That's across everything, from the big enterprise boxes down to the AMS."
HDS' highest category score (6.71) came in the product reliability section (see "Product reliability" PDF). Even so, EMC posted a 6.60, which was good for second place. Both HDS (7.04) and EMC (6.89) received their respective highest marks for "This product experiences very little downtime."
"They've been very reliable for us," says GXS' Craigie of the multiple EMC systems installed in the organization's U.S. and European locations. "Downtime is completely not acceptable at GXS for our primary array."
IBM joined HDS and EMC as the only vendors to score 6.0 or higher on all product reliability statements, with its highest score (6.36) for the statement "This product experiences very little downtime."
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