Solution Providers Give Dell's Networked Storage Hig

ell Computer's march beyond its PC roots is gaining momentum, with solution providers giving the vendor the Channel Champions title in networked storage hardware, particularly for its strong showing in the area of price/performance.

Dell's victory in this category was by no means decisive. In fact, large solution providers,those with more than $5 million in annual revenue,rated the Round Rock, Texas-based vendor's overall score no higher than a tie for fourth among the nine storage hardware vendors judged.

But Dell scored a substantial victory among small solution providers,those with annual revenue of less than $5 million,which gave it an overall average score of 77, enough to edge out second-place IBM by a mere two-tenths of a point and third-place Hitachi Data Systems by three-tenths of a point.

The survey conducted 932 interviews with solution providers, who rated vendors on 13 criteria. The category was defined broadly as any networked storage device, including NAS, SAN and tape libraries, but excluded server-based arrays. Dell offers both a PowerVault NAS line and a SAN array co-branded with EMC.

The large and divided field clearly aided Dell's overall victory. Dell, while holding the highest average score, came in first place on only three of the 13 criteria, while IBM and Hitachi Data Systems traded places in the other areas, each taking the No. 1 position in five areas.

But where Dell was strong, it was very strong. What propelled Dell to its surprise win in network storage were its high marks in the areas of price/performance and return on investment.

Dell outdistanced its closest rival in price/performance, Quantum, by 3.6 points,a huge margin in this race when measured against other areas that saw winning margins measured in tenths of a point. Likewise, Dell demolished the competition on the return-on-investment criterion, scoring a 77 and besting its nearest rival, Hitachi Data Systems, by 4.3 points.

Dell's third strength was in ease of management, although enterprise storage vendors IBM and Hitachi Data Systems were close behind.

When the scores were broken down between large and small solution providers, a clear pattern emerged: Dell rules the roost as far as small solution providers are concerned and is an also-ran among large ones.

Among solution providers with annual revenue of $5 million or less, Dell won both for technical and channel criteria. But among larger solution providers, Dell managed only a fourth-place finish in the technical arena and a sixth-place finish in the channel arena.

A Dell spokeswoman said Dell does not have a channel program or channel strategy for its networked storage products.

Nevertheless, some solution providers said they recommend Dell's PowerVault to their customers. William Duke, shop manager at Triple C Computers, Odessa, Texas, said he refers his customers that want NAS to Dell "because I'm familiar with their product, and I don't want to give a bad [product] referral to my customers."

Triple C, which specializes in serving small-business accounts, doesn't resell Dell hardware, however. "Dell doesn't cut us any slack [on prices]," Duke said.

Another small solution provider, Tim Goodwin, president of Emergency Computer Services, Colorado Springs, Colo., said he occasionally recommends Dell to customers that are already using Dell products.

Dell's lack of a formal channel program cost the vendor, particularly among larger solution providers. "I don't have anything to do with Dell; they are a competitor," said Steve Curtis, general manager of Entre Computer, Sumter, S.C. "I can't make money on Dell. I sell IBM and Compaq [storage]."

Russ Holt, vice president and general manager of Dell's storage business, said in a statement that Dell's PowerVault NAS is a price/performance leader in the industry. He said as data needs continue to grow, customers face the challenge of preserving the integrity of their data while lowering IT costs.

"We have seen particularly strong growth among small and medium businesses and distributed workgroups or remote locations within larger corporations," Holt said.