Features - Enterprise Data Insights:

NEW SURVEY REVEALS SAN SURPRISES

Heavy Reading, the market research division of Light Reading Inc, published a comprehensive, worldwide market perception study covering the storage area network (SAN) industry. Veritas Software Corp and Cisco Systems Inc earned the highest scores for market leadership from 380 SAN buyers and users worldwide.

Heavy Reading's Fall 2003 Storage Networking Market Perception Study is a 63-page report based on an exclusive, invitation-only survey of purchasers and users of SAN products. The 380 survey participants included managers and employees from value-added resellers of SAN products, systems integrators, multinational corporations and telecom service providers.

Respondents gave their perception of 135 vendors (61 public, 74 private) in 10 product categories, identifying which companies they recognize and consider market leaders in price, performance, quality and reliability, and service and support.

Key findings include:

• Among SAN software providers, Veritas Software holds a leading mindshare position with customers.
• Despite its late entry into the SAN space, Cisco is established as a sector leader in the eyes of customers.
• Among established storage vendors, McData Corp and EMC Corp are doing the best job of building mindshare in the SAN segment.
• Many potential buyers of SAN products are coming from outside long-established storage channels.
• Many big computing and networking suppliers trying to cross over into the SAN market are not yet perceived as strong vendors.

The Heavy Reading survey was created to measure how well each vendor in the SAN market has been able to build mindshare with prospective buyers. The storage networking survey is part of a larger portfolio of Heavy Reading market perception reports, including reports on the telecom equipment and operations support system markets.