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  • IBM Tops HP in Latest Gartner Disk Array Ranking, Both Trail EMC

    March 12, 2007 Timothy Prickett Morgan

    One of the reasons why Hewlett-Packard bought Compaq more than six years ago was to get its hands on its lucrative and large server business; the other was to get its hands on Compaq’s disk array business, which had an even more dominant piece of that pie. For years, HP has outsold IBM in the disk array business, but in 2006, according to research by Gartner, Big Blue finally surpassed HP to take the number two spot in the external RAID disk array market.

    IBM is, however, well behind EMC in this space, and HP may or may not have beaten out IBM in the overall disk array market, which includes internal disk arrays as well as external boxes.

    According to the Gartner analysis of 2006’s external RAID disk array sales, EMC brought in just under $3.8 billion in direct sales, not including OEM sales through Dell and Fujitsu-Siemens. EMC boosted sales of these disk arrays by 10.4 percent compared to 2005’s sales levels, giving it 24.8 percent of the market. IBM sold $2.4 billion in external RAID disk arrays, growing by 13.2 percent and giving it 15.8 percent of the market. Both EMC and IBM grew their revenue share. HP, which saw sales decline by 7.7 percent to just under $2 billion, last 1.6 points of market share, falling to 13.1 percent of the revenue pie. Hitachi came in fourth, with $1.5 billion in sales (up 5.1 percent), followed by Dell, with $1.2 billion in sales (up 3.5 percent), Network Appliance, with $1.1 billion in sales (up 21.7 percent), and Sun Microsystems, with $930 million in sales (up 12.5 percent). Other players accounted for $2.4 billion in sales, down 10.7 percent. The total market accounted for $15.2 billion in sales in 2006, up 4.1 percent.

    Whatever problems HP has in the external RAID disk array market, it was hit particularly hard in the fourth quarter of 2006, when sales fell by 12.5 percent to $514 million. IBM didn’t just inch by HP in the final quarter of 2006–it blew by it with a mighty wind, with sales of $836 million, up 17.3 percent. EMC grew by 8.1 percent, breaking through the $1 billion market. Dell shrank by 10.6 percent to $331 million, and Sun grew more modestly by 2.6 percent, hitting $230 million. Hitachi had $411 million in sales in the quarter, growing smartly by 15.8 percent, almost matching IBM’s growth. NetApp had the highest growth, growing by 19.7 percent in the quarter and posting $290 million in sales. At this rate, NetApp will pass Dell (which has most of its revenues through a reseller agreement with EMC). The external RAID disk array market amounted to $4.3 billion in revenues in the fourth quarter, up 3.8 percent.



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    Tags: Tags: mtfh_rc, Volume 16, Number 10 -- March 12, 2007

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    UCG Technologies – Vault400

    Do the Math When Looking at IBM i Hosting for Cost Savings

    COVID-19 has accelerated certain business trends that were already gaining strength prior to the start of the pandemic. E-commerce, telehealth, and video conferencing are some of the most obvious examples. One example that may not be as obvious to the general public but has a profound impact on business is the shift in strategy of IBM i infrastructure from traditional, on-premises environments to some form of remote configuration. These remote configurations and all of their variations are broadly referred to in the community as IBM i hosting.

    “Hosting” in this context can mean different things to different people, and in general, hosting refers to one of two scenarios. In the first scenario, hosting can refer to a client owned machine that is housed in a co-location facility (commonly called a co-lo for short) where the data center provides traditional system administrator services, relieving the client of administrative and operational responsibilities. In the second scenario, hosting can refer to an MSP owned machine in which partition resources are provided to the client in an on-demand capacity. This scenario allows the client to completely outsource all aspects of Power Systems hardware and the IBM i operating system and database.

    The scenario that is best for each business depends on a number of factors and is largely up for debate. In most cases, pursuing hosting purely as a cost saving strategy is a dead end. Furthermore, when you consider all of the costs associated with maintaining and IBM i environment, it is typically not a cost-effective option for the small to midsize market. The most cost-effective approach for these organizations is often a combination of a client owned and maintained system (either on-prem or in a co-lo) with cloud backup and disaster-recovery-as-a-service. Only in some cases of larger enterprise companies can a hosting strategy start to become a potentially cost-effective option.

    However, cost savings is just one part of the story. As IBM i expertise becomes scarce and IT resources run tight, the only option for some firms may be to pursue hosting in some capacity. Whatever the driving force for pursing hosting may be, the key point is that it is not just simply an option for running your workload in a different location. There are many details to consider and it is to the best interest of the client to work with an experienced MSP in weighing the benefits and drawbacks of each option. As COVID-19 rolls on, time will tell if IBM i hosting strategies will follow the other strong business trends of the pandemic.

    When we say do the math in the title above, it literally means that you need to do the math for your particular scenario. It is not about us doing the math for you, making a case for either staying on premises or for moving to the cloud. There is not one answer, but just different levels of cost to be reckoned which yield different answers. Most IBM i shops have fairly static workloads, at least measured against the larger mix of stuff on the public clouds of the world. How do you measure the value of controlling your own IT fate? That will only be fully recognized at the moment when it is sorely missed the most.

    CONTINUE READING ARTICLE

    Please visit ucgtechnologies.com/IBM-POWER9-systems for more information.

    800.211.8798 | info@ucgtechnologies.com

    Article featured in IT Jungle on April 5, 2021

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TFH Volume: 16 Issue: 10

This Issue Sponsored By

    Table of Contents

    • So Where Is PureXML for DB2/400?
    • IBM Tops HP in Latest Gartner Disk Array Ranking, Both Trail EMC
    • IBM’s Plan for an Adjacent, Custom Systems Market
    • Zend and IBM Sponsor Wiki for System i PHP Redbook Development
    • WDSc Version 7.0 Standard Edition Is Missing Two Key Features
    • Rumors Say Farm Bureau to Dump AS/400s for Windows Boxes
    • Is Upgrading a Silly Waste of Time and Money?
    • DataMirror Grows Revenues in Q4, Boosts Bottom Line Even More
    • As I See It: The Digital Life
    • Gates Says Infinite H1-B Visas, Scholarships Needed to Boost Tech Competitiveness

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