IBM Named a Leader in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Solid State Arrays

Worldwide market leader in solid state arrays is positioned for its completeness of vision and ability to execute

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Sep 05, 2014, 11:05 ET

ARMONK, N.Y., Sept. 5, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that Gartner, Inc., has recognized IBM as a "Leader" in the August 28, 2014, Gartner Magic Quadrant for Solid State Arrays.

The inclusion comes two months after Gartner named IBM the worldwide market leader* in revenue from Solid State Arrays shipments. According to IBM these rankings reflect the fast-growing adoption of IBM flash by clients across industries and around the globe, many of whom are turning to the technology to speed application performance, lower energy costs, and gain faster access to insights from Big Data analytics.

For example, Nass Magnet, a leading manufacturer of industrial electronic magnets in Hannover, Germany, adopted IBM flash storage and storage virtualization to speed the performance of its mission-critical SAP applications, as well as cut down the amount of time it takes to back up data each day.

After deploying IBM FlashSystem and virtualization software, Nass Magnet found the performance of its SAP applications including Financial Accounting, Production Planning and Warehouse Management jumped tenfold. In addition, the company reduced backup times from four hours to only nine minutes – a reduction of almost 98 percent.

"Deploying fast IBM storage played a key role in helping us create a faster more efficient business environment," said Michael Weper, CIO, Nass Magnet. "More importantly, it's now an environment we can scale easily to meet increasing demands."

According to the Gartner report, "by 2017 the SSA opportunity is expected to grow approximately five times in revenue compared to 2014."

"We feel the recent industry rankings reflect the growing adoption of IBM flash and virtualization solutions by clients who are looking for innovative ways to improve the performance of their business," said Jamie Thomas, General Manager, Storage and Software Defined Systems, IBM Systems & Technology Group. "IBM flash solutions give clients fast access to Big Data analytics, lowers their costs, and even reduces the footprint of their data centers – proving that the infrastructure you choose, truly matters."

With the Real-time Compression feature, for certain workloads FlashSystem V840 can increase the effective capacity of flash storage up to 5x, decreasing the cost for effective capacity up to 80%.**

IBM offers flash solutions across its expansive storage portfolio. In addition to the IBM FlashSystem 840 and V840 all-flash arrays, the DS8000 and Storwize V7000 families of advanced storage systems can be configured as all-disk, all-flash (Solid State Drives), or hybrid (disk and flash) systems.

Market Definition/Description

"The Magic Quadrant covers SSA vendors that offer dedicated SSA product lines positioned and marketed with specific model numbers, which cannot be used as, upgraded or converted to general-purpose or hybrid storage arrays. SSA is a new subcategory of the broader external controller-based (ECB) storage market." – Gartner

Leaders Quadrant

"Vendors in the Leaders quadrant have the highest scores for their Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision. A vendor in the Leaders quadrant has the market share, credibility, and marketing and sales capabilities needed to drive the acceptance of new technologies. These vendors demonstrate a clear understanding of market needs; they are innovators and thought leaders; and they have well-articulated plans that customers and prospects can use when designing their storage infrastructures and strategies. In addition, they have a presence in the five major geographical regions, consistent financial performance and broad platform support." – Gartner

Note: Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

* Gartner Market Share Analysis: SSDs and Solid-State Arrays, Worldwide report for 2013, by Joseph Unsworth, published June 10, 2014. Gartner identified IBM as the leader with 25 percent of the Solid State Array (SSA) market share revenue.

** Customer results will vary depending on workload and environment.

For more information about IBM Flash Storage, visit www.ibm.com/storage/flash and follow us on twitter @ibmstorage

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Contact Information

Mike Zimmerman
IBM Media Relations
+1 (914) 766-4935
[email protected]

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SOURCE IBM