Customers Single Out EMC as #1 Storage for VMware by Wide Margin

EMC Press Release

Customers Single Out EMC as #1 Storage for VMware by Wide Margin

EMC Named Best Storage across All Categories for VMware vSphere Environments; Clinches #1 Spot in Annual Wikibon Survey for Second Year Running

HOPKINTON, MA - August 24, 2012

News Summary:

• EMC has been named the #1 storage vendor in the annual survey of VMware vSphere customers by leading industry analyst firm Wikibon. EMC received this honor for the second year in a row.
• When asked by Wikibon which vendor offers the best solution for VMware environments, nearly half of all customers surveyed ranked EMC #1 and almost 3X higher than the nearest competitor.
• EMC products were singled out as the best in each of the three categories in the survey – general, block-only, and unified storage.

Full Story:

EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC) today announced it has captured the #1 position in leading industry analyst Wikibon's annual virtualization study: "VSphere 5 Storage Integration Chips Away at Management Overhead." When asked which vendor offers the best solution for VMware environments, 49% of all respondents named EMC® named as #1, nearly 3X more than the nearest competitor and more than the combined scores of the six other remaining storage vendors. EMC VNX® and EMC VMAX® were the two EMC storage systems included among the twelve products in the survey. Customers singled out EMC storage systems as the best in each of the three survey categories – general, block-only and unified storage.

VMware vSphere® 5 is experiencing rapid adoption, and higher levels of virtualization are associated with vSphere 5 use, according to the survey. EMC's industry-leading solutions provide transformative benefits to companies in all stages of virtualization, from the beginning of the journey to full virtualization in VMware environments.

Customers of the top storage vendors rated available storage offerings based on criteria such as data protection, storage performance, management, storage network support and security. Integration was the survey's most often-cited differentiating factor and most sought-after storage attribute for vSphere 5 implementations. In addition to EMC's industry-leading number of VMware integration points, many of which propelled EMC to the top of the Wikibon survey, resulting capabilities like EMC Virtual Storage Integrator (VSI) accentuate the value EMC delivers to VMware users. VSI is a no-charge, EMC-developed plug-in to the VMware vCenter management software that allows VMware administrator to provision, monitor, and manage VMware vSphere datastores on EMC storage arrays directly from vCenter, greatly simplifying management of the virtualized environment.

Customer Quote:

Jim Collison, Storage and VMware Systems Administrator, Perforce

"EMC's tight integration with VMware is legendary - and at Perforce we've definitely seen the associated benefits within our vSphere 5 deployment. With simplified management, protected data and enhanced performance, EMC has delivered on the promises of its solutions in spades. We were able to see savings in storage costs as well as improvements in performance and scalability by deploying EMC VNX for vSphere, so it's no surprise that EMC came out on top in this survey of storage buyers."

Mike Leeper, Senior Manager, Global IT Engineering, Columbia Sportswear

"Columbia Sportswear is committed to being a leading innovator in active outdoor apparel, footwear, accessories and equipment. Our IT infrastructure is what propels our ability to innovate and deliver world class customer service. Columbia is nearly 100% virtualized - and our EMC VMAX environment is the perfect complement to our VMware vSphere environment. We deployed EMC VMAX because it delivers powerful, trusted and smart storage, the perfect match to the flexibility and agility we can achieve from our VMware vSphere environment. Together, VMware and EMC enable us to efficiently, powerfully and securely protect and manage our information."

Industry Analyst Quote:

David Floyer, CTO & Co-founder, Wikibon

"Wikibon's annual storage integration survey provides a window into end-user concerns and priorities. The questions this year were focused on vSphere 5 implementation, and users listed the top reasons for rapid adoption as: staying current, performance and improved VMware storage management. The respondents of this survey clearly ranked EMC #1 when asked which storage provider has the best solution for VMware. This is due in large part to EMC's investment in providing support for the new APIs in vSphere 5, and its close working relationship with VMware."

EMC Quote:

Jeremy Burton, Executive Vice President of Product Operations & Marketing, EMC Corporation

"This end user survey is a reflection of what EMC is hearing in the market: that tight integration with VMware is critical to successfully executing storage strategies in virtual environments in an efficient, agile and trusted way. EMC listens to its customers, and through this survey, it's clear that we're exceeding their virtualization requirements and setting the bar for storage innovation and performance as we extend our market lead."

About EMC

EMC Corporation is a global leader in enabling businesses and service providers to transform their operations and deliver IT as a service. Fundamental to this transformation is cloud computing.  Through innovative products and services, EMC accelerates the journey to cloud computing, helping IT departments to store, manage, protect and analyze their most valuable asset — information — in a more agile, trusted and cost-efficient way. Additional information about EMC can be found at www.EMC.com.