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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Enterprise Customers to Storage Vendors: You Do Not Get It

Independent survey reveals frustration with mismatched solutions, hidden costs, uninformed sales efforts

Bellevue, WA. - September 11 2006 - Storage vendors consistently fail to demonstrate an understanding of their customers business issues, and push complex solutions with hidden costs routinely misaligned to stated business objectives, according to an independent study commissioned by Bocada, Inc., the recognized leader in data protection management software.

The blind survey, which polled nearly 200 IT decision makers at enterprises with more than 500 people, was designed to determine how well storage vendors understand and meet the overall business objectives and professional needs of storage managers and buyers.

"Every purchase seems to be another WWF Smackdown, complete with posturing (on both sides), wild claims and chest-beating,” said one respondent.  Others cited “too many empty promises” and “too many companies trying to claim they have the best solutions” only later to “fall way short of my expectations.”

The results reveal significant flaws in the due diligence and sales processes, and require a call to action for all storage vendors to improve their practices to better serve their customers, according to Bocada President and CEO Drake Pruitt.

The survey results, released today, show that 45 percent of respondents believe their storage vendor doesn’t do an adequate job of understanding or learning about their organization’s business objectives.  This lack of understanding results in the vendor’s inability to make the right technical recommendations for their customers’ storage environments, respondents said.  Similarly, half of respondents said their storage vendor should do a better job listening to their requirements before making recommendations.

Ironically, the level of dissatisfaction comes at a time when the need for appropriate and effective storage solutions is greater than ever, with 73 percent of respondents reporting that, “end-users at my organization are demanding access to more information,” and 81 percent indicating that they would prefer to “spend more time interpreting information, rather than hunting for it.”

 “The fact that enterprise storage customers aren’t getting the benefit of even a rudimentary understanding of their business issues at a time when demand for storage is skyrocketing alarms me,” said Pruitt.  “Vendors in the storage industry should be taking the time to understand customers’ objectives to develop technology and recommend products that enable their companies succeed.” 

The lack of qualitative research, paired with the absence of a method to assess “apples-to-apples” claims, places the burden of objective evaluation disproportionately upon potential customers, results show. 

Respondents stated that vendors regularly over promise and under-deliver on product capabilities and functionalities; don’t provide adequate factual and technical information; and push pet products and add-ons that obscure true Total Cost of Ownership.

“They don’t take the time to see the big picture.  They just get enough information to recommend the products they are pushing” said one survey respondent.  Another found fault with “Vendors’ own lack of understanding of how their own products can supply a solution…so as to make the current pet product being the 'one you must have.'

“As an industry, there’s no excuse for keeping customers in the dark,” Pruitt said.  “They’re making high-dollar buying decisions that impact the success of their business and their careers. Customers should be provided with accurate and complete information that enables them to properly evaluate the breadth of solutions available and make the right choice for their storage environment.”

 “The storage industry is a very competitive market and as a result customers can get caught in the crossfire,” said Brad O'Neill, senior analyst at Taneja Group. “Vendors, however, need to recognize that storage is a major cost center for IT, and they need to make recommendations that support the business objectives of their customers.”

What’s the Solution?

Pruitt says vendors can take certain steps to ensure that they’re aligning their recommendations to customers’ business needs.

- Accept the Heterogeneous Storage Environment

According to Pruitt, vendors should abandon the fantasy of owning 100 percent of their customers’ storage environments. Instead, they should for focus on how to maximize the effectiveness of their products through APIs or management tools that enable interoperability across platforms. “Standardization is the quantum leap vendors need take— help customers evolve from managing islands to managing integrated systems,” Pruitt said.

- Understand How New Business Rules Can Disrupt Technology Adoption

“Customers are in a constant battle todefine and execute standardized, repeatable processes across distributed environments in open systems,” Pruitt said. “Compliance is a great example. Audits force many storage and data protection teams to interrupt critical planning and operations activities to respond quickly, thereby disrupting processes, increasing errors, and burning out their personnel in the effort.  In reality, process definition and evolution toward best practices happens more slowly than suits the needs of sales quotas and companies dependent on rapid replacement cycles for success. Instead of pushing products, storage vendors should be assisting their customers to achieve maximum, repeatable use of those products in place.”

- Dont Just Sell Components, Sell Management

“If storage vendors really want to see the pace of technology adoption increase, they need to put management tools back into their product roadmaps so they can help customer IT staff actually do their jobs to meet the business demands of their organization,” Pruitt said.  “Expecting IT pros to live by command line interfaces, to build and maintain their own scripts, and to fend for themselves via forums and listmail groups, only serves to widen the gap of distrust between customers and their vendors.”

Survey Methodology

Bocada developed a series of eight survey questions designed to provide insight into how well storage vendors are meeting the needs of IT professionals. As part of the survey, respondents were screened to ensure they were involved with the purchase of storage products and work in companies with 500 or more employees. At the end of the survey, respondents were also given the opportunity to comment on what makes them the most frustrated when it comes to storage technology evaluations, purchase and deployment. The survey was distributed via e-mail to a targeted list of Network World subscribers. Bocada was not visibly associated with the questionnaire. Of the 179 survey respondents, 134 chose to participate in the commentary portion.

The survey in its entirety can be accessed at http://bocada.com/pdf/storage_survey.pdf.

About Bocada
Bocada provides automated insight and visibility into data protection processes, enabling IT organizations to confidently analyze data recoverability, predict risk vulnerability and identify opportunities for cost reduction. Based on patented, agent-less technology, Bocada solutions deploy rapidly and scale to meet the demands of the largest multi-vendor data protection environments. More than 400 brand-name customers and partners worldwide trust Bocada for their data protection operations, including Microsoft, AT&T, Sprint, Unilever and Valero Energy. Headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, Bocada is privately held, funded by leading venture investors. For more information visit: www.bocada.com.

Bocada is a registered trademark and DPM Path to Excellence and DPM P2E are trademarks of Bocada, Inc.

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