EMC in RAID, Symantec in Backup Software and Intel in SSDs

IT Brand Pulse, a source of data and analysis about IT infrastructure, announced the results of the April 2012 Brand Leader Awards survey.

In this edition survey, respondents were asked which vendors they perceive as the leader in ten categories of Infrastructure for Virtual Machines (VMs): Processors, Servers, Firewalls, ADCs, WAN Optimization, Network Adapters, Network Switches, Disk Arrays, SSD, and Backup Software. For each category, respondents chose the brand leader in Market, Price, Performance, Reliability, Service & Support, and Innovation.

"Surrounding virtualized servers is an entire ecosystem of information technology re-engineered for optimum performance with VMs", said Frank Berry, senior analyst, IT Brand Pulse. "Incumbency in the discrete IT era does not guarantee market leadership in the new era of virtualized IT."

Highlights of the survey:
IT Brand Pulse compared who IT pros perceive as market leaders for each "product" from previous surveys, with who IT pros perceive as market leaders for each "product for VMs" in the April survey. In the Application Delivery Controller and SSD product categories, IT pros selected different market leaders. In three other product categories, IT pros selected the same market leader, but the difference in scores was greater than 10%.

In the Processors for VMs brand leader survey, Intel was overwhelmingly selected the Market Leader by end users. Intel finished ahead in five of six categories giving up only the Price Leader award to AMD. IBM took the second place spot behind Intel for Market Leader and in all remaining categories.

HP came out on top as Market Leader and in all but one brand leader category for Servers for VMs. Dell received the most votes as the Price Leader and posted a second place in the Market Leader category. IBM filled the runner-up slot in three categories: Performance, Reliability, Service & Support, and, tied with Cisco for second in Innovation.

In the Firewalls for VMs brand leader survey, Cisco captured every brand leader category except Price, in which SonicWALL was choice of end users. Though Check Point and Juniper tied for second in the Market Leader category, Juniper alone secured second place in Performance, Reliability, Service & Support, and Innovation. IT perceptions showed Citrix as the Market Leader in Application Delivery Controllers for VMs. Citrix led the way in four of the six categories, including Price, Performance and Innovation and tied with Cisco for the leader award for Reliability. Cisco was the top vote getter in Service & Support.

For WAN Optimization for VMs, Cisco swept all six categories, while Riverbed took second in every category.
Juniper Networks ranked third in Market, while also taking the bronze in Price and Performance.

In the Network Adapters for VMs, IT professionals selected Intel as the leader in five of the six brand categories; giving up only the Price award to Broadcom. Second place finishes came for Broadcom in Market, Performance, Reliability, and Innovation and, for QLogic, in the Service & Support category.

Respondents ranked Cisco number one in every brand leader category in Network Switches for VMs. HP consistently won second in every category. Following its recent acquisition of Force10, Dell has managed to establish itself as a promising entrant by placing third in Market, Price and Performance.

Voting in the Disk Arrays for VMs survey revealed EMC as the leader in Market, Performance, Reliability and Innovation. HP secured the top spot in Service & Support with Dell as the winner of the Price Leader title. NetApp took second in five categories, including Market.

In SSD for VMs, Intel was chosen Market, Reliability, and Service & Support Leader. For Performance and Innovation, Fusion-io took the top slot while OCZ captured the Price title and was runner-up for the Market Leader award. Samsung and Seagate finished tied for third in the Market category.

Symantec, with its NetBackup and Backup Exec platforms, swept the Backup Software for VMs brand leader survey. IBM was the clear runner up with its Tivoli Storage Manager, landing second in every category except for Price, which went to Barracuda Networks. EMC and its Networker software placed third in the Market Leader category.

About the Brand Leader Surveys
IT Brand Pulse Brand Leader surveys are designed to measure the pulse of brand leadership in specific product categories. IT professionals respond to one survey covering various products. Within each product category, respondents choose the overall market leader, as well as the leader in price, performance, reliability, service and support, and innovation.