Amazon in Cloud Storage, WD in HDD, Quantum in Tape, EMC in FCoE, Data Domain in VTL

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

Respondents were asked which vendors they perceive as the leader in seven categories: Cloud Storage (IaaS), Enterprise HDDs, Enterprise Servers, Mid-Range Tape Drives, FCoE Storage, Virtual Tape Libraries and Database (DBMS).

For each category, respondents chose the brand leader in Market, Price, Performance, Reliability, Service & Support, and Innovation.

"After transforming the retail industry and reinventing the publishing industry, Amazon is one of the world’s most valuable brands", said Frank Berry, CEO of IT Brand Pulse. "The future of the IT industry is the cloud. Watch out IT vendors, the May, 2012 IT Brand Leader surveys show that Amazon is establishing incumbency as a Cloud IT Brand Leader."

Highlights of the survey:

• In the Cloud Storage (IaaS) survey, Amazon Web Services swept all six categories. Respondents selected Google as the Cloud Storage runner up in all but one category, Service and Support, which instead went to IBM. Rackspace placed third in voting for Market, Price, and Service and Support.
• Just a few months after acquiring Hitachi GST, Western Digital/Hitachi GST captured the Market Leader award, and every remaining brand leader category for Enterprise HDDs; IT professionals chose Seagate, second.
• For Enterprise Server, HP received the most votes in Market and three other leader categories. IBM finished second in Market, Reliability, Service and Support and Innovation, and came out on top in Performance. Dell finished third in Market but received the most votes in the Price Leader category.
• In the Mid-Range Tape Drives survey, IT professionals chose Quantum as the Market, Price, Performance and Innovation Leader. HP was ranked second in Market above third place winner, IBM. While HP managed to receive the most votes in Service and Support, it tied with Quantum for the top position in Reliability.
• EMC was selected as the Market Leader for FCoE Storage, and came out ahead in four of the five remaining categories. Through its acquisitions of Compellent and EqualLogic, Dell has established itself as the runner up in Market and the top brand in Price. HP/3PAR finished third in voting for Market Leader.
• In the Virtual Tape Libraries brand leader survey, EMC/Data Domain ranked number one in Market and four other categories. NetApp landed second in Market, Performance and Innovation, and tied with IBM for the runner up position in Reliability. HP placed third in Market, while NetApp achieved first in Price.
• Oracle led the way as Market Leader for Database (DBMS) and captured four of the five remaining categories. Microsoft was voted second in Market and four other categories, but ranked first in Price. IBM came in at number three for Market Leader.