Gabriel Consulting Unveils Key Findings of 2010 x86 Server Vendor Research
Data Center Personnel Rate and Rank the Major Vendors on Server Performance, Management and RAS
BEAVERTON, Oregon – Feb. 23, 2011 — Gabriel Consulting Group (GCG), an independent analyst firm, today released key findings of its fourth annual 2010 x86 Server Vendor Preference survey, a report focused on vendor selection trends among 199 enterprise data center managers responsible for data centers of all sizes.
IBM received high marks on system performance from the enterprise customers who took the survey. Respondents said that IBM systems perform the best both on benchmarks and in their own data centers, on their own workloads.
Customers named HP as the vendor with the ‘Best System Management Suite,’ citing its ease and efficiency of use.
“IBM and HP split most of the categories on this year’s edition of the survey – each took home wins in critical categories. IBM leads everyone on the performance questions this year, probably due to the recent top-to-bottom revamp of their product line,” said Dan Olds, Principal Analyst with GCG. “On the other hand, HP scored key wins on systems management and manageability topics, which are pretty important to customers as well. The best brand for a customer really depends on what’s most important to them given the application and how they value the various system/vendor attributes.”
Additional findings cover system RAS (Reliability, Availability, & Serviceability):
- Respondents said that IBM’s System x brand offers the best availability and reliability features – but a significant number also said that they don’t see a lot of differentiation from the vendors.
- When asked which vendor’s systems demonstrated the best availability and reliability on their own workloads, customers named HP.
- All four major vendors had a decent showing in the ‘Serviceability’ ratings, with IBM narrowly edging ahead of Oracle, and Dell placing a strong third.
“In these categories, like many others, we see the same HP-IBM dogfight. However, in this edition of the survey, we saw significant improvement in Dell’s results in a number of important categories. Oracle also showed some life, with solid finishes on a number of categories, but few outright wins,” said Olds.
In the ‘System Quality’ section of the survey, customers indicated that all of the major x86 vendors are doing a good job on fit, finish, and delivery:
- Oracle had the edge on best initial, out-of-the-box quality.
- HP was chosen as having the best build consistency.
- IBM is seen as best adhering to industry standards.
- Dell systems are the easiest to set up and use.
GCG is also releasing findings from other sections of the 2010 x86 Server Vendor Preference survey. More information and detailed results are available here. Follow Dan Olds on Twitter @danolds.
About Gabriel Consulting Group
Gabriel Consulting Group is a research, analysis, and consulting firm dedicated to helping clients achieve maximum return on their Information Technology investment.
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Contact: Dan Olds
503-372-9389 Office
503-730-5072 Mobile