Enterprise Data Storage Survey Results
- 2007
Survey Quick-link Index:
In the IT world, network storage and business continuity are gaining
importance among Communications News subscribers. In fact, the
interest among our audience in storage technologies is at its highest
since at least 2001.
Our survey indicates that 2008 budgets for storage-related products
and services are being increased by 32 percent of those polled, with 48
percent planning to spend the same as 2007. Fifteen percent plan to
spend at least $250,000 on storage solutions next year, with another 30
percent budgeting $50,000 to $250,000.
Most of those polled say they plan to purchase network-attached
storage (49 percent), while 42 percent are interested in disk arrays, 38
percent in storage area network technology, 35 percent in e-mail
archiving and 30 percent in iSCSI solutions. Content-address storage (4
percent) and Infiniband (1 percent) are not priorities for 2008.
We asked subscribers which companies they consider the leaders in
storage solutions, and the top three are predictable: EMC, IBM, and
Cisco Systems. One quarter of those polled say they will purchase
products from these three leaders. However, 35 percent said they plan to
purchase products from a lower-cost alternative...Dell.
When asked the top reasons for selecting a specific brand of storage
technology, reliability was the top reason, mentioned by 74 percent of
respondents, with ease of integration second at 59 percent. Half of
respondents cited "price." Having the newest technology was important to
just 5 percent of buyers.
While important, cost is not the top concern driving the purchase of
storage products and services among survey respondents. Data security is
their main concern (56 percent), followed by interoperability (35
percent), data management (34 percent), cost (30 percent) and vendor
reliability (28 percent).
Perhaps the most telling question we asked was, "Which companies (up
to three) do you feel do the best job of informing you about their
storage technology products or services?" Excuse me for crossing the
ad/edit-church/state line here, but the companies who seem to be
advertising in the enterprise IT market the heaviest received the
highest scores (IBM, 47 percent; EMC, 41 percent; and Cisco Systems, 37
percent). Dell was right behind at 36 percent, but the numbers for all
four indicate a general lack of knowledge within enterprise IT
departments about what solutions are available and how those solutions
fit into particular IT needs.
Meanwhile, vendors who specialize in storage products, but maintain a
relatively low profile in their storage marketing efforts, scored low in
the study. These include: Sun Storagetek, 13 percent; Network Appliance,
13 percent; Quantum, 12 percent; Hitachi, 11 percent; and Sony, 6
percent.
This survey was conducted to determine brand awareness and buying
behavior among Communications News subscribers regarding data
storage products and services. There were 118 respondents.
