Report:

Magic Quadrant for Primary Storage Platforms

Top Vendor Products for Primary Storage Platforms in 2024

• Dell Technologies
• HPE
• IBM
• NetApp
• Pure Storage

Primary Storage Platforms Vendor Product Comparisons 2024

• Dell Technologies - Leader
  

  Pros:

  • Backed by its Future-Proof Program, Dell Technologies offers customers a leading 5:1 data reduction SLA guarantee for its PowerMax and PowerStore products.
  • The vendor simplifies platform backup and restore by integrating its PowerMax and PowerStore offerings with PowerProtect Data Domain, providing customers with simplified platform deployment and a versatile multidomain data service capability.
  • APEX Navigator provides a multicloud orchestration and provisioning capability that simplifies infrastructure platform management across on-premises and AWS public cloud.

  Cons:

  • Dell Technologies does not offer a single storage operating system that works across midrange, high-end and public cloud. This creates data management and platform complexity along with flexibility limitations to changing workload requirements.
  • The vendor lacks IT operating model platform SLA guarantees, as compared to other vendors evaluated in this research that offer SLAs for ransomware detection, power consumption and energy efficiency.
  • Dell Technologies' flash SSD support for its midrange and high-end enterprise products only scales to 30.6TB drives and has no offload engine functionality. In comparison, some competitors offer 60TB and 75TB drives with better power, space and cooling efficiencies, and data services assist capabilities.


• Hitachi Vantara - Challenger
  

  Pros:

  • The vendor offers a sustainability SLA guarantee through its Hitachi Modern Storage Assurance program. It allows customers to upgrade to the next-generation Hitachi solution within five years of installation to support 30% to 40% carbon emission reduction objectives.
  • Hitachi Vantara has enhanced its EverFlex consumption-based portfolio of services by simplifying customer onboarding to its managed subscription business.
  • Its control plane, EverFlex Control, divides its functionality into modular components that focus on different aspects of IT operations, allowing customers to tailor benefits to platform needs.

  Cons:

  • Hitachi Vantara lags behind PSP competitors in offering a robust ransomware detection SLA guarantee.
  • The vendor does not offer an on-premises SDS system that separates compute and storage resources, which prevents compute and capacity resources from independently scaling cost-effectively.
  • Hitachi Vantara lags behind competitors in offering a cost-performant QLC SSD drive in lieu of hybrid hard-disk drive (HDD) systems for use in lowering backup and disaster recovery site costs.


• HPE - Leader
  

  Pros:

  • HPE's four-node 32-core CPU Alletra MP SDS disaggregated architecture allows customers to cost-effectively scale platform capacity and performance independent of each other, with a 100% data availability guarantee.
  • HPE GreenLake for Block Storage (built on HPE Alletra Storage MP) customers can run the same storage software on-premises and in AWS, benefiting from storage standardization that simplifies data management and hybrid platform services.
  • The HPE what-if workload simulation provides customers with fleetwide workload placement recommendations based on performance and available platform capacity.

  Cons:

  • The vendor lags behind competitors in offering a sustainability and cyber ransomware SLA guarantee.
  • HPE's flash SSD support for its products only scales to 30.6TB NVMe drives, with no offload engine functionality to support platform requirements, compared to the 60TB and 75TB drives offered by competitors, with better power, space and cooling efficiencies and data assist capabilities.
  • Some confusion is possible as to which product is best for certain workloads as HPE transitions and consolidates its storage portfolio to the HPE GreenLake for Block Storage built on HPE Alletra Storage MP product.


• Huawei - Challenger
  

  Pros:

  • Huawei Multilayer Ransomware Protection offers a 99.99% detection rate on known variants by employing a collaborative network storage approach to reduce cyberthreats.
  • Huawei provides a 100% data availability guarantee and a 5:1 effective capacity guarantee for its all-flash array products that are active for three years from date of warranty.
  • Huawei's captive NVMe SSD FlashLink technology enables rapid introduction of higher drive capacities and, with ASIC-based offload engine functionality, supports improved performance, resilience and extended flash life.

  Cons:

  • Huawei is restricted from distributing in North America and, as a result, does not provide an SDS multicloud scale-out hybrid platform solution for AWS, Azure and Google Cloud Platform.
  • The vendor's customer concentration and limited business exposure outside of its two primary vertical industries create a potential risk to ongoing operations, support and product availability in the event of an industry or local economic downturn.
  • Multiple Huawei STaaS offerings and licensing options can be overly complex and confusing, depending on whether Huawei Cloud Stack or ElasEver is promoted by its sales teams.


• IBM - Leader
  

  Pros:

  • The IBM Storage Assurance consumption program provides flat subscription pricing that includes life cycle managed technology upgrades, along with a performance guarantee.
  • IBM's Flash Grid workload mobility, partitioning and nondisruptive migration solution guarantee provides efficient asset management and continuous workload optimization across platform requirements.
  • The vendor offers an energy-efficiency guarantee based on wattage per raw terabyte and the ability to continuously monitor throughout the workload life cycle.

  Cons:

  • IBM does not offer a capacity-optimized QLC-based array that is priced to compete against hybrid HDD arrays.
  • The vendor does not offer file service support on any of its block storage products.
  • IBM does not offer an on-premises FlashSystem that separates compute and storage resources.


• IEIT SYSTEMS - Niche Player
  

  Pros:

  • IEIT SYSTEMS' unique chassis and four-controller frame design with autonomous load balancing is unique among competitors, allowing customers to linearly scale up to 48 controllers in a highly resilient and performant-guarantee manner.
  • The vendor's in-line I/O antiransomware service identifies infected objects and can automatically roll them back through snapshots to minimize the impact of ransomware.
  • IEIT SYSTEMS' Infinistor AIOps tool provides performance workload planning and simulation, enabling customers to continuously optimize their environment.

  Cons:

  • IEIT SYSTEMS is relatively unknown outside the China market, where most of its customers are based, making it difficult for global storage enterprise customers to justify choosing the vendor over established global brands.
  • IEIT SYSTEMS lags behind competitors in offering a multidomain platform strategy for use in major global public clouds, limiting its consideration as a viable option for expanded hybrid data center deployments.
  • The vendor lags behind competitors in integrating and offering an ecosystem of market-leading independent software providers, such as ransomware recovery and autorecovery, as part of a platform data services strategy.


• Infinidat - Challenger
  

  Pros:

  • Infinidat is a well-established storage brand in the service provider and very high-end global enterprise market, where its multi-dozen-petabyte capacity typically supports consolidation of several applications onto a single system. It is also known for its high-quality service and support.
  • The Infinidat SSA Express solution provides clients with additional capabilities, such as consolidating multiple smaller, point product flash array requirements into a single cost-effective InfiniBox hybrid array with all-flash SSA capabilities.
  • The vendor's subscription-based InfiniSafe Cyber Detection for VMware provides a 99.99% guarantee for recovery in less than one minute, regardless of data size, from immutable snapshots after a cyberattack.

  Cons:

  • Infinidat lacks a midrange product making it difficult for customers to justify choosing it as a single supplier for their storage platform environment.
  • Infinidat's InfuzeOS is based on an on-premises three-node, active-active-active controller architecture, limiting the SDS InfuzeOS Cloud Edition version to a single-node architecture for use in AWS and Azure public clouds.
  • Infinidat's flash SSD support is limited to 15TB drives, compared to market leaders that offer 30TB, 60TB and 75TB drives and have better power, space and cooling efficiencies.


• NetApp - Leader
  

  Pros:

  • NetApp offers a Ransomware Recovery Guarantee to recover the immutable backup snapshot for its file/unified (AFF) and block (ASA) products. The NetApp Ransomware Recovery Assurance Service is required at the time of system purchase to activate this guarantee.
  • NetApp simplifies IT operations data center activities by expanding its Keystone strategy with an Equinix Metal service offering. It bundles space, power, cooling and full-stack infrastructure elements, as well as a performance guarantee.
  • The vendor's BlueXP control plane sustainability dashboard enables customers to monitor, report and take action on sustainability insights in order to manage energy consumption and carbon emissions.

  Cons:

  • NetApp does not offer a competitive ransomware detection SLA guarantee, notwithstanding its ransomware recovery guarantee, for block storage platform applications.
  • NetApp's flash SSD support for its ASA and AFF series of products only scales to 30.6TB drives, compared to the 60TB and 75TB drives offered by competitors with better power, space and cooling efficiencies.
  • NetApp does not offer an on-premises SDS system that separates compute and storage resources, which prevents compute and capacity resources from independently scaling cost-effectively.


• Pure Storage - Leader
  

  Pros:

  • Leveraging Pure1, Pure Storage takes a proactive SLA approach to its managed STaaS Evergreen//One subscriptions by offering customers meaningful platform guarantees that provide favorable IT operations' benefits.
  • Pure Fusion's control plane is embedded into its Purity operating system, eliminating external cloud communication and AIOps dependencies for fleet management and proactive support.
  • The vendor's captive NVMe SSD DFM enables Evergreen//One to drive more frequent flash hardware innovation, new SLAs and data management improvements.

  Cons:

  • Pure Storage lags behind competitors in customer diversification outside of the U.S., making it harder for customers to justify selecting it over more established vendors in those regions.
  • Its capex-based Evergreen//Forever program markedly increases storage array asset platform and support costs to enable modern life cycle management objectives.
  • Pure Storage does not offer an on-premises SDS system that separates compute and storage resources, which prevents compute and capacity resources from independently scaling cost-effectively.


• Zadara - Niche Player
  

  Pros:

  • Zadara's business model provides customers with a global and highly skilled managed service provider channel, well-versed in managing and supporting platform consumption services as a managed service.
  • Zadara's solution leverages a cost-effective object store and a disaggregated key value architecture for tiering storage capacity.
  • The vendor's architecture reduces overall physical hardware waste by leveraging a flexible life cycle management strategy. It is based on composable commodity hardware that can be repurposed dynamically anywhere in a multi-tenant-hosted STaaS environment.

  Cons:

  • Zadara is limited in the number of favorable IT operating model platform SLAs it offers natively, such as ransomware protection and recovery.
  • Zadara is a relatively small vendor in terms of size of operation and coverage among larger and more visible competitors, making it challenging for customers to justify choosing it over larger and brand-recognized vendors.
  • The vendor's STaaS platform depends on Zadara's managed service providers to offer third-party integrated and supported independent software vendor (ISV) partner data services.

Reference

• Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Primary Storage Platforms, 17 September 2024, ID G00802924

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