Sun Edges Out EMC: Developmental Milestones

Although Compaq took second place in the support subcategory and has enthusiastic resellers such as Manchester's Gagliano who praise the vendor for its support efforts, Compaq is planning to bolster its support strategy with new services and solutions in the coming year. And EMC, Hewlett-Packard and IBM, which brought up the rear in this year's network storage category, each have specific improvements in mind that could influence their scores next year.

Despite a reputation for selling direct, EMC is already making inroads in the channel with its new CLARiiON storage systems, acquired from Data General.

IBM is banking on newly released products such as the IBM TotalStorage NAS 300G and yet-to-be-released products to attract storage-focused solution providers to its fray. And although IBM's last-place score in ease of doing business dragged it down, the company is planning to streamline its business across multiple product lines to correct the problem.

While plans may change post-Compaq acquisition, HP is currently planning to build out its storage channel team. "We will increase [the team] by 150 percent by next year," says Kevin Gilroy, general manager of North American Channels. "Quite frankly, we have been under-resourced." Gilroy also promises special compensation plans for HP server resellers who build storage into their solutions.

Part 1: Sun Edges Out Market-Share Leader EMC

Part 2: Making It Work