2019 IT Brand Leader Survey Report
Storage Products

2019 Brand Leader Survey
IT Brand Leader Survey Report
This 2019 brand leader surveys cover 14 storage products.
The report includes results of voting for six categories of brand
leadership for each product: Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Service & Support and Innovation.
Numerical survey data is available upon request. Please contact us at
info@itbrandpulse.com.
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2019 Brand Leader Survey
2019 Storage Brand Leader Survey Table of Contents Page
Brand Leader Survey Methodology 4
Brand Leader Voting Definitions 5
Survey Respondent - Title/Job Description 7
Survey Respondent - Data Center Environment 8
2019 Storage Brand Leader Survey Winners Chart 10
Product Category Definitions 11
Summary Analysis 12
Ageless Storage 2019 Brand Leader Chart 13
Distributed Database Backup & Recovery 2019 Brand Leader Chart 14
Enterprise Archive 2019 Brand Leader Chart 15
Enterprise Backup Software & Appliance 2019 Brand Leader Chart 16
Enterprise File Synch & Sharing 2019 Brand Leader Chart 17
Enterprise HDDs 2019 Brand Leader Chart 18
Hybrid NAS Array 2019 Brand Leader Chart 19
Hybrid SAN Array 2019 Brand Leader Chart 20
On-Premises Enterprise Storage as a Service 2019 Brand Leader Chart 21
Scale Out File & Object Storage Appliance 2019 Brand Leader Chart 22
Scale out File & Object Storage Software 2019 Brand Leader Chart 23
Servers for Software Defined Storage 2019 Brand Leader Chart 24
Storage Performance Validation Software & Appliances 2019 Brand Leader Chart 25
Unified SAN/NAS Disk Array 2019 Brand Leader Chart 26
About the Author 27
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2019 Brand Leader Survey
4
• Brand Leader reports are designed to measure the pulse of brand leadership in specific product
categories using results from independent, non-sponsored surveys with at least 200 respondents.
• The Storage Brand Leader Survey was conducted in 2019.
– Respondents were solicited from over 1,000,000 members of 100+ online IT groups, and from the IT Brand
Pulse database of 150,000 IT professionals.
– Two hundred and fourteen IT Pros responded to this survey.
– Responses were collected using an online survey engine.
• In each part, respondents were provided with a product category description, randomly-listed vendor
choices (plus an “Other” answer choice to add a vendor, if applicable), and were asked six questions:
1. Who do you perceive as the <product category> market leader?
2. Who do you perceive as the <product category> price leader?
3. Who do you perceive as the <product category> performance leader?
4. Who do you perceive as the <product category> reliability leader?
5. Who do you perceive as the <product category> innovation leader?
6. Who do you perceive as the <product category> service & support leader?
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4
Storage
Brand Leader Survey Methodology

2019 Brand Leader Survey
Brand Leader Definitions
5

2019 IT Brand Leader Survey Report
Respondent Profiles

2019 Brand Leader Survey
Respondent Title/Job Description:
VAR/OEM
Security Administrator/Architect
Data Center Manager
Network Administrator/Architect
Storage Administrator/Architect
Executive/Management
Server Administrator/Architect
Other
IT Manager/Director
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2019 Brand Leader Survey
Your environment is best described as:
Product Development
Public Cloud/Data Center Provider
High-Performance Computing Data Center
Other
Small-Medium Business Data Center
Enterprise Data Center
8

2019 IT Brand Leader Survey Report
Survey Results

2019 Brand Leader Survey
2019
Storage
Brand Leaders
Voted by IT Pros
Ageless Storage Pure Storage Pure Storage Pure Storage Pure Storage Pure Storage Pure Storage
Distributed Database Backup &
Recovery
Veritas Veritas Veritas Veritas Veritas Veritas
Enterprise Archive Microsoft Microsoft Veritas Microsoft Microsoft Microsoft
Enterprise Backup Software &
Appliances
Dell EMC Veeam Dell EMC Dell EMC Veeam Dell EMC
Enterprise File Synch & Sharing Microsoft Google Google Microsoft Google Microsoft
Enterprise HDDs Seagate Seagate Seagate Seagate Seagate Seagate
Hybrid (HDD & SSD) NAS Arrays Dell EMC Dell EMC Dell EMC
Dell EMC
& NetApp (tie)
NetApp Dell EMC
Hybrid (HDD & SSD) SAN Arrays Dell EMC Dell EMC Dell EMC Dell EMC Dell EMC Dell EMC
On-Premises Enterprise Storage
as a Service
Pure Storage Pure Storage Pure Storage Pure Storage Pure Storage IBM
Scale Out File & Object Storage
Appliances
Dell EMC Dell EMC Dell EMC Dell EMC Dell EMC Dell EMC
Scale out File & Object Storage
Software
VMware VMware VMware VMware VMware VMware
Servers for Software Defined
Storage
Dell EMC Dell EMC Dell EMC Dell EMC Dell EMC Dell EMC
Storage Performance Validation
Software & Appliances
SolarWinds SolarWinds SolarWinds SolarWinds SolarWinds NetApp
Unified (SAN/NAS) Disk Arrays Dell EMC Dell EMC Dell EMC Dell EMC Dell EMC Dell EMC 10

2019 Brand Leader Survey
11
Product Category Definitions
• Ageless Storage: Storage that is bought or leased (not Storage as a Service) with upgrades built into the purchase price or leasing terms.
• Distributed Database Backup & Recovery: Enterprise-class distributed backup and recovery for distributed database clusters.
• Enterprise Archive: Long term storage of email and other data that is infrequently accessed, and often must adhere to compliance regulations
such as GxP Data (Pharma), SEC17a4 (Banking), HIPAA, patient record (Healthcare), and product liability (Automotive).
• Enterprise Backup Software & Appliances: Backup products which provide some or all of the following in an integrated appliance: backup to
tape, backup to random-access media (disk, flash, etc.), emulate the previous backup targets (e.g., VTL [VTL]), data reduction (compression,
deduplication, single instancing, etc.), snapshot, heterogeneous replication and CDP (CDP).
• Enterprise File Synchronization & Sharing: EFSS refers to a range of on-premises or cloud-based capabilities that enable individuals to
synchronize and share documents, photos, videos and files across multiple devices, such as smartphones, tablets and PCs.
• Enterprise HDDs: Also known as a disk drive. Enterprise HDDs are disk drives with higher performance, capacity and reliability than HDDs for
PCs.
• Hybrid NAS Array: Ethernet-based hybrid (disk and SSD) arrays which provide access to files using network file sharing protocols such as NFS,
SMB/CIFS, or AFP.
• On-Premises Enterprise Storage as a Service: Storage which is deployed on-premise, but is purchased based on consumption.
• Hybrid SAN Array: Fibre Channel and iSCSI-based hybrid (disk and SSD) arrays which provide access to files using network file sharing
protocols such as NFS, SMB/CIFS, or AFP.
• Scale Out File & Object Storage Appliances: Hardware/software appliances which serve as self-contained repositories for scale-out file and
object storage.
• Scale-out Object Storage Software: Software which runs on standard servers and for scale-out file and object storage.
• Servers for Software Defined Storage: Servers designed for deployment as storage nodes in a software defined storage cluster. Servers for
software defined storage nodes are characterized by their enclosures which house dozens of HDDs or SSDs.
• Storage Performance Validation Software & Appliances: Storage load generation and I/O measurement systems that gather data and then
create a production workload model using the data. The appliances can then run the emulated workload against storage systems to validate
their ability to handle the workload.
• Unified SAN/NAS Disk Array: A disk array which can be partitioned into a block-based SAN array and a file-based NAS array.
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2019 Brand Leader Survey
12
Summary Analysis
• Dell EMC Flexes Brand Muscles, Voted Market Leader in 6 Product Categories
– Voting for the data center infrastructure giant makes a big comeback in 2019. The company was voted market leader for
Enterprise Backup Software & Appliances, Hybrid NAS Arrays, Hybrid SAN Arrays, Unified SAN/NAS Arrays, Scale-out File &
Object Storage Appliances, and Servers for Software Defined Storage.
• Pure Storage Dominates IT Pro Voting for Ageless Storage and On-Prem Storage-as-as-Service
– Pure Storage pioneered the Ageless Storage category, and in 2019 became the first major vendor to offer On-Prem Storage-
as-a-Service. IT pros rewarded the company with their votes for market leader in both product categories.
• Microsoft Chosen Market Leader for File Synch & Sharing and Enterprise Archive for First Time
– Microsoft and Google leap to the front of the leaderboard for Enterprise File Synch & Sharing while Microsoft and Veritas lead
voting for Enterprise Archive.
• VMware Selected as Market Leader for Scale-Out File & Object Storage for First Time
– Open source and pure-play software companies may have pioneered Scale-out File & Object Storage, but the survey results
indicate that enterprise IT pros are looking first at VMWare for solutions.
• Seagate Voted Enterprise HDD Market Leader Every Year Since Initial Survey in 2009
– It’s simple. In the minds of IT pros, “Seagate” is synonymous with Enterprise HDDs.
• SolarWinds Repeats as Storage Performance Validation Leader
– For the second consecutive year, SolarWinds was chosen as the market leader for storage performance validation.
• Veritas Distributed Database Backup & Recovery
– In 2019 we expanded the criteria for this category from specialized software for this purpose, to general-purpose products
which included agents for backup and restore of distributed databases. Given their preference for Veritas and Commvault in
this survey, it turns out IT pros view the big general-purpose software vendors as market leaders.
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2019 Brand Leader Survey
Ageless Storage
13
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
30.00%
35.00%
40.00%
45.00%
50.00%
Pure Storage
(Evergreen
Storage)
Dell EMC (Flex On
Demand)
IBM (Storage
Utility)
HPE/Nimble
(Timeless
Storage)
Western
Digital/Tegile
(Lifetime Storage)
HDS (VSP
Midrange)
Market Price Performance Reliability Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the
Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Innovation, and
Service & Support leader
for Ageless Storage?

2019 Brand Leader Survey
Distributed Database Backup & Recovery
14
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
Veritas Commvault Rubrik Datos IO Talena Imanis
Market Price Performance Reliability Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the
Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Innovation, and
Service & Support leader
for Distributed Database
Backup & Recovery?

2019 Brand Leader Survey
Enterprise Archive
15
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
30.00%
35.00%
40.00%
45.00%
Microsoft Veritas Barracuda Proofpoint Mimecast Smarsh(Actiance) Global Relay ZL Technologies Bloomberg Micro Focus
(GWAVA)
Market Price Performance Reliability Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the
Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Innovation, and
Service & Support leader
for Enterprise Archive?

2019 Brand Leader Survey
Enterprise Backup Software &
Appliances
16
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
30.00%
35.00%
40.00%
Dell EMC
(Avamar, Data
Domain and
Networker)
Veeam Comnmvault Veritas/Symantec IBM Cohesity HPE Acronis Quantum
Market Price Performance Reliability Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the
Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Innovation, and
Service & Support leader
for Enterprise Backup Software
& Appliances?

2019 Brand Leader Survey
Enterprise File Synch & Sharing
17
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
30.00%
35.00%
40.00%
45.00%
50.00%
Microsoft Google Dropbox Box Citrix Accellion Egnyte Axway
(Syncplicity)
BlackBerry
Market Price Performance Reliability Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the
Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Innovation, and
Service & Support leader
for Enterprise File Synch &
Sharing?

2019 Brand Leader Survey
Enterprise HDDs
18
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
Seagate Western Digital (WD) Toshiba HGST
Market Price Performance Reliability Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the
Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Innovation, and
Service & Support leader
for Enterprise HDDs?

2019 Brand Leader Survey
Hybrid (HDD & SSD) NAS Arrays
19
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
30.00%
35.00%
40.00%
45.00%
Dell EMC NetApp HPE Fujitsu IBM Hitachi Data
Systems (HDS)
Oracle Huawei
Market Price Performance Reliability Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the
Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Innovation, and
Service & Support leader
for Hybrid NAS Array?

2019 Brand Leader Survey
Hybrid (HDD & SSD) SAN Arrays
20
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
Dell EMC NetApp HPE Hitachi Data
Systems (HDS)
IBM Fujitsu Oracle Huawei
Market Price Performance Reliability Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the
Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Innovation, and
Service & Support leader
for Hybrid SAN Arrays?

2019 Brand Leader Survey
On-Premises Enterprise Storage
as a Service
21
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
30.00%
35.00%
40.00%
45.00%
50.00%
Pure Storage Evergreen
Storage Service (ES2)
IBM Cloud Private Cloud
Storage as a Service
HPE Greenlake Flex
Capacity for Storage
DXC Storage as a Service Zadara Cloud Platform
Market Price Performance Reliability Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the
Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Innovation, and
Service & Support leader
for On-Premises Enterprise
Storage as a Service?

2019 Brand Leader Survey
Scale Out File & Object Storage
Appliances
22
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
Dell EMC NetApp IBM Quantum Cohesity HDS Huawei DDN Cloudian
Market Price Performance Reliability Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the
Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Innovation, and
Service & Support leader
for Scale Out File & Object
Storage Appliances?

2019 Brand Leader Survey
Scale out File & Object Storage Software
23
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
VMware Red Hat Microsoft Scality Cloudian SUSE IBM/Cleversafe Nexenta HGST/Amplidata
Market Price Performance Reliability Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the
Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Innovation, and
Service & Support leader
for Scale out File & Object
Storage Software?

2019 Brand Leader Survey
Servers for Software Defined Storage
24
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
30.00%
35.00%
40.00%
45.00%
Dell EMC Cisco HPE Supermicro Lenovo Huawei Quanta Inspur
Market Price Performance Reliability Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the
Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Innovation, and
Service & Support leader
for Servers for Software
Defined Storage?

2019 Brand Leader Survey
Storage Performance Validation
Software & Appliances
25
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
SolarWinds NetApp Ixia SANBlaze Virtual
Instruments/LoadDynamiX
Market Price Performance Reliability Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the
Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Innovation, and
Service & Support leader
for Storage Performance
Validation Software &
Appliances?

2019 Brand Leader Survey
Unified SAN/NAS Disk Arrays
26
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
30.00%
35.00%
40.00%
Dell EMC NetApp Hitachi Data
Systems (HDS)
HPE IBM Fujitsu Oracle Huawei
Market Price Performance Reliability Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the
Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Innovation, and
Service & Support leader
for Unified SAN/NAS Disk
Arrays?

2019 Brand Leader Survey
About the Author
27
Samantha Griffin is a Manager of Brand Leader
Research at IT Brand Pulse.
Samantha.griffin@itbrandpulse.com