Despite HP's top score on the IPED Affinity Index, IBM is expected to maintain its top position in terms of deals that VARs plan to close in the second half of 2008, according to IPED. VARs expect IBM to close 43.8 percent of all SMB storage virtualization sales in the second half of the year.
More and more clients are working with IBM's storage virtualization technology, including its lead product, the SAN Volume Controller, or SVC, said Leif Morin, president of Key Information Systems, a solution provider and IBM partner.
While storage virtualization has been around for some time, customers still have a sense of mystery surrounding the technology before it is implemented, Morin said.
" 'What is the value?' they ask," Morin said. "But after it's implemented, it becomes the 'fax machine' of computing. I've had clients come back and say, 'How did I ever manage storage without it?' Those exact words."
SVC's ability to move volumes of data while an application is running is very important, Morin said. It is also a high-performance solution. "It's not functional to deploy virtualization technology for flexibility if it impacts performance," he said. "IBM takes care of both."
