Storage Backup Subsystems: IBM

In storage backup subsystems, IBM was faultless. IBM came up strong across the board in technical criteria and trounced the competition in the channel program areas to dominate this category of the 2005 CRN Channel Champions Survey.

After sweeping all 15 survey criteria, IBM’s overall rating of 82.7 put it 4.5 points ahead of runner-up Hewlett-Packard’s 78.2. Quantum was third with 75.4 and StorageTek fourth with 72.6.

IBM’s strength in technical areas included automated retrieval and price/performance. Its products’ excellent reliability and price/performance allow multiple storage pools to be created within an IBM DS6000 array for use as primary and backup storage, said Mark Teter, CTO of Advanced Systems Group, Denver.

“You can put databases, file services and e-mail on the DS6000, then back it up within the same footprint for consolidated storage architecture,” he said. “Or you load up the DS4000 with ATA hard drives and back the data up there.”

Teter also said that breadth of products, combined with IBM’s Tivoli storage management software, makes Big Blue one of the best vendors for storage backup products. IBM offers a full line of backup subsystems ranging from one-drive LTO tape autoloaders to virtual tape systems for mainframes to its full range of disk-based arrays from the entry-level DS300 to its highest-end arrays.

Denise Buonaiuto, vice president of global business partner sales for IBM’s Systems and Technology Group, said her company has also come a long way in price/performance since last year with the transition from the original Shark family to the DS line.

While IBM swept the technical areas, it was even stronger on channel criteria, where it pulled 5.9 points ahead of HP overall. Its strong points included consistency of channel programs, managing channel conflict and responsiveness to solution provider feedback.

Andrew Preston, account executive at UCA Computer Systems, Denville, N.J., said IBM provides excellent training and a constant flow of information. “It can get to be too much, but we know what to ignore,” he said.

Teter compared IBM’s push to get training and information to its channel with changing a tire while driving. “We have an aggressive sales target, while at the same time trying to follow their product road map,” he said. “It can be overwhelming. If we had all the time in the world, it would be no problem.”