Network Hardware - Racks and Enclosures

This is a crowded category with cut-throat

competition between lots of players. In fact,

8 unique players made it to the Users' Choice club across both employee segments. APC takes away the crown in both segments this year. HP is runner up in both employee segments, but the third position is dominated by IBM in 100-499 employee segment, and Dell in 500+ employee segment.

Top of mind recall of IT brands was fairly low in this segment, with 30% or less of the respondents managing to mention a brand name when asked. So there's clearly a need for the players to be more visible in this space, if they want to build up the data center market amongst small and mid-size enterprises.

82% of existing owners of APC's racks and enclosures in companies with 100-499 employees were unlikely to move to another brand in the near future if they had to, clearly indicating a high degree of brand loyalty there. However, 5% of its existing customers were likely to shift to Dell and IBM each. HP enjoys 80% brand loyalty, with remaining 20% not having any plans of shifting. Emerson, which didn't have that high percentage of ownership, had 100% loyal customers. While APW President had only 33% loyal customers, the remaining 67% weren't sure which other brand to move to if they had to. This was the same story with all other brands in the club-low brand loyalty, but uncertainty on which brand to go for in the future.

In companies with 500+ employees, APC enjoyed 100% brand loyalty, while HP had 80% loyal customers, with another 20% not sure about which brand to move to.

Product reliability appears to be the key reason why users have opted for or are likely to buy the top brands in this segment in the future.