2007 CRN Channel Champions: Storage
SERVER-CLASS DISK DRIVES
Of the 17 technical and channel program criteria used in the survey, Seagate scored first place in 16. That made the vendor the overall 2007 CRN Channel Champion for server-class hard drives with a score of 74.6. Hitachi Global Storage was second with 68.9, and Fujitsu finished third with 66.4.
The only subcategory in which Seagate did not come out on top was services attach rate, where it came in second place with a score of 48.4 vs. Hitachi's 48.9.
On the technical criteria, Seagate's overall satisfaction rating of 89.2 came in 7.5 points ahead of the nearest competitor, Hitachi, and 8.5 points ahead of Fujitsu.
Seagate's largest margin of victory in the technical criteria was for product quality and reliability, for which it earned a 102.4 score, nearly 12 points higher than second-place Hitachi, which earned a 90.9 rating.
Some solution providers believe that Seagate's reliability is worth paying a premium.
"I've seen failure rates twice as high as Seagate's with some other brands," said Mike Baker, chief consultant at Pegasus Computer Consultants, a solution provider in Murphy, Texas. "We're a small shop and sometimes pay a 10 percent premium for the Seagate drives, but the long-term reliability and fewer support issues make it worthwhile," he said.
For channel program and support criteria, Seagate came out less on top but was on top nonetheless. Its overall satisfaction rating of 74.7 was 4.3 points ahead of second-place Hitachi and 6.7 points ahead of third-place Fujitsu.
"Seagate gives us a lot of support," said Jean Shih, president of Amax, a builder of custom systems, servers and storage appliances in Fremont, Calif. "Seagate's field engineers will come out to us when we have a problem, and Seagate funds help sponsor us at trade shows and events," he said.
Solution providers also rated Seagate most favorably from a financial perspective. The vendor's first place score of 74.6 was 5.5 points higher than Hitachi and more than 8 points higher than Fujitsu.
— Marc Spiwak
| VENDOR | TECHNICAL | PROGRAM & SUPPORT |
FINANCIAL | OVERALL |
| Seagate/Maxtor | 89.2 | 74.7 | 62.4 | 74.6 |
| Hitachi Global Storage | 81.7 | 70.4 | 56.7 | 68.9 |
| Fujitsu | 80.7 | 68 | 53 | 66.4 |
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Next: External Data Backup EXTERNAL DATA BACKUP
In a nearly clean sweep, IBM claimed the Channel Champions honors this year in external data backup, wresting the title from Hewlett-Packard, last year's top finisher in the category.
IBM was ranked first in 15 of the 17 technical, program and financial criteria considered. Still, the company's overall Channel Champs rating of 73 was only 2 points ahead of HP's 71. Rounding out the field were Sony (66), Quantum (64.5), Exabyte (63.7) and Iomega (62).
"The big thing that IBM has done, on the enterprise side, is continue to enhance the TS1120 tape drive with higher capacity, higher performance and tape encryption," said Greg Nightingale, enterprise storage manager at Sirius Computer Solutions, a San Antonio-based solution provider.
"Those tape drives also have the flexibility to use WORM tape cartridges to meet compliance and archival requirements. That's something that has been tremendously well-received by our customers," he said.
Keith Norbie, director of storage at Nexus Information Systems, Plymouth, Minn., said IBM's pricing in this category has been aggressive, while HP has been ardently rewarding partners for tying storage to other HP hardware sales.
"Both [IBM and HP] have a lot of opportunity for back-end MDF that they can leverage across attaching storage to servers. That's probably one of the big 'X' factors," Norbie said, adding that Nexus typically leads with other vendors for external data backup. "Because IBM and HP have not attached storage to servers as much as they've liked to, they are rewarding above and beyond other vendors—at least perceptually—to give better MDF and better margins."
IBM scored its biggest margins of victory over HP in the areas of services attach rate, scalability and channel program consistency. And if IBM holds steady, it could maintain its edge in the latter criterion.
Starting this month, HP is eliminating Attach Plus rebates for enterprise servers and storage, and replacing them with sales growth incentives. The move has some VARs concerned about rebate dollars and a bit unclear about HP's incentives.
Attaching services was where IBM really shined, beating HP by a score of 49.5 to 42.1. "IBM is very big on including services with every backup solution," Nightingale said.
— Russell Redman
| VENDOR | TECHNICAL | PROGRAM & SUPPORT |
FINANCIAL | OVERALL |
| IBM | 92.8 | 73.8 | 55.8 | 73 |
| HP | 91.2 | 72.1 | 53 | 71 |
| Sony | 85.4 | 67.5 | 48.5 | 66 |
| Quantum | 82.3 | 65.4 | 48.7 | 64.5 |
| Exabyte | 82.5 | 64.6 | 47.1 | 63.7 |
| Iomega | 80.5 | 61.5 | 47.1 | 62 |
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Next: Network Storage (SAN/NAS) NETWORK STORAGE (SAN/NAS)
Hewlett-Packard nearly made a clean sweep of the 2007 CRN Channel Champions survey in network storage, besting rivals IBM, Sun Microsystems and EMC in 15 of the 18 separate ratings criteria, tying with IBM in one, losing to IBM in another and taking last position in a third.
HP's strongest showing was in technical criteria, where it soundly defeated the opposition in all six criteria, posting especially big leads in product quality and reliability, price for performance, and interoperability.
HP's quality and interoperability stems from its server experience and its willingness to embrace industry standards, said Dhruv Gulati, executive vice president at Lilien Systems, a Larkspur, Calif.-based HP solution provider. "EMC has no server offering, so it's harder for them to produce products with the enterprise in mind," Gulati said. "It's harder for them to see the overall perspective. IBM has always been more proprietary. And Sun is very new to storage networking."
On the program side, HP led in pre- and post-sales support, and technical education resources. However, HP stumbled in terms of channel conflict management, where it tied with IBM, and channel program consistency, where IBM had a strong first-place showing. Gulati said HP has always had strong channel programs, but execution is sometimes a challenge.
"For example, they outsource a lot of things like rebates, compensation, registration and special pricing to third parties, which adds a layer of complexity," he said. "But to be fair, other companies like Oracle also outsource things like that, too. The bigger you are, the more difficult it is sometimes."
Rich Baldwin, president and CEO of Nth Generation Computing, a San Diego-based HP partner, said he is not surprised to see HP lose to IBM on long-term channel program consistency.
"IBM is very conservative, and slow to change," Baldwin said. "HP is always changing. When HP rolls out a new program, it takes three to six months just to figure out how to use it."
But HP had a strong showing in services attach rate. "Over the last year, HP has been pushing us to add a lot of services, and incenting us to do it," Gulati said. "And as technology costs fall, that's where the margins are."
— Joseph F. Kovar
| VENDOR | TECHNICAL | PROGRAM & SUPPORT |
FINANCIAL | OVERALL |
| HP | 89.8 | 71.7 | 55.7 | 72.4 |
| IBM | 84.4 | 70.2 | 53.2 | 69.3 |
| Sun Microsystems | 84.4 | 69.7 | 51.7 | 68.7 |
| EMC | 84.7 | 66.6 | 51.9 | 67.7 |
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Next: Storage Management Software STORAGE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE
Symantec was able to take advantage of its acquisition of Veritas nearly two years ago to grab the top spot in the 2007 CRN Channel Champions survey for storage management software.
Symantec's rating of 68.6 bested Hewlett-Packard's 68.2, IBM's 67.6, EMC's 66.8, Network Appliance's 64 and CA's 62.5. Symantec's win came thanks to close victories over rivals in the technical and financial criteria, giving it enough momentum to overcome a third-place showing in program and support criteria.
Symantec had solid wins in price for performance, reporting and predictive capabilities, but it lost to HP in product quality and reliability, scalability and multiplatform support.
Julie Parrish, vice president of global channels at Symantec, said she is not surprised by the results. The scores for scalability and multiplatform support might have been low because the bulk of Symantec's solution providers resell the company's midmarket Backup Exec, where the sweet spot of the market is companies with between 250 and 750 users. Backup Exec is also aimed at the Windows environment, she said.
Mark Teter, CTO of Advanced Systems Group, a Denver-based solution provider and long-term Veritas partner, said some results in the technical criteria, such as price for performance, were surprising. However, Teter said the strong showing by EMC in multiplatform support with its legacy Legato software was no surprise. "In the old days, it was Veritas vs. Legato, so Legato has legs," he said.
In program and support, Symantec was bested by HP and EMC. Rick Marcotte, president and CEO of DLT Solutions, a Herndon, Va., government solution provider, said Symantec's low marks for pre- and post-sales support, along with technical education, may have come because many solution providers don't need them.
Symantec probably took its biggest hit in channel program consistency because of the acquisition of Veritas, Marcotte said. "When they merged, they tried to be consistent," he said. "But often, these things don't work as planned."
Parrish expects that is the case. The vendor in April finished merging myriad Symantec and Veritas partner programs. "So it's not surprising they feel it's not consistent over time," she said.
— Joseph F. Kovar
| VENDOR | TECHNICAL | PROGRAM & SUPPORT |
FINANCIAL | OVERALL |
| Symantec/Veritas | 80.5 | 67.4 | 58 | 68.6 |
| HP | 80.2 | 69 | 55.3 | 68.2 |
| IBM | 77.4 | 68.8 | 56.5 | 67.6 |
| EMC | 78.5 | 66.7 | 55.3 | 66.8 |
| NetApp | 74.6 | 65.7 | 51.8 | 64 |
| CA | 74.1 | 72.3 | 51.1 | 62.5 |
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