HP took home the 2011 Annual Report Card award in the Volume Servers category after sweeping the product innovation, support and partnership subcategories, as well as 17 of the 18 criteria in each of these subcategories for servers under $25,000.
The company beat out IBM and Dell, with its highest score coming in product quality and reliability and its biggest margin over the next-best company coming in managing channel conflict, neither of which surprises John Gromala, director of product marketing, infrastructure software and blades, for HP.
/**/ /**/
"We work with partners to deliver solutions that customers want. We'll take engagement with channels and customers to find out what customers want and consistently drive not only our own development team but our partners as well," Gromala said. "It's that virtuous cycle of us engaging with the channel end customers to make a difference. It really shows in the market share we've got."
HP claims more than 50 percent share in the blade category and 38 percent in the broader x86 category that make up volume servers, Gromala said, adding that HP's relationships with other vendors to build a solutions-based approach to selling volume servers has also been a key to success.
"The ability for us to work with partners, with whom we have deep partnerships, has been [vital]. We've got every one of the major [vendors] out there: networking partners, software partners, storage partners. We're all focused on how we add value to solutions on Proliant [servers]," Gromala said.
David Dadian, CEO of powersolution.com, a Ho-Ho-Kus, N.J.-based solution provider, said other vendors knock on his door all day long, but he's sold almost nothing but HP servers for 16 years. The product quality and support are unmatched by other server vendors, he said.
"They just really make an outstanding product value-wise and reliability-wise," Dadian said. "And as far as channel conflict, we don't see any to be honest. If we need something, we pick up the phone and pretty much get it."
related stories
Video
trending stories
sponsored resources

OutSystems
Modern Application Development 360

Symantec
Symantec Business Security Learning Center

HP Amplify™ - A Simplified Global Program for the Customer-Driven Digital Age
HP Inc.

BlackBerry
BlackBerry Learning Center

Dell Technologies
Dell Technologies Cloud Learning Center

Dell Technologies
Dell Technologies Storage Learning Center

NPD
Industry Trends 360

Products of the Year Showcase

Cysurance
Cyber Insurance 360

StorageCraft
Disaster Recovery Learning Center

APC by Schneider Electric
IoT Platforms 360

EPOS
EPOS

Smart 3rd Party
3rd Party Maintenance 360

WatchGuard
WatchGuard

Spectrum Partner Program
Spectrum Partner Program

ADT
Network Security 360

Tenable
Cyber Risk 360

Wasabi
Wasabi

Dell Technologies
Dell Technologies Server Learning Center

HubStor
Cloud Backup 360

Carbonite
Cloud Storage 360

Comcast
Comcast Business Learning Center

Trend Micro
Managed Security 360

Dell Technologies
Dell Technologies Hybrid Cloud Learning Center

Veeam
Veeam
