PCQ Enterprise Choice Awards 2021: NetApp wins the NAS race

Similar to the server category, Network Attached Storage (NAS) market is also projected to grow from USD 23.2 billion in 2020 to USD 48.0 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 15.7 per cent, according to Markets and Markets Research.

The key factors fueling the growth in the NAS space are the rapid adoption of 4G and 5G technologies. With the increased use of smartphones, laptops, and tablets, as well as the highvolume digital content created by the users are generating enormous volumes of data.

In our survey for NAS, NetApp and Dell were the close competitors. Dell, IBM, PureStorage, WD and Seagate were certainly the popular names, but in our Familiarity Index, the top three were NetApp, Dell, and IBM. NetApp won with a score of 97, followed by Dell with a score of 91 and IBM with a score of 87. In the top five list, HPE and Seagate got the recognition with 80 and 61 per cent scores respectively.

In Spontaneous Awareness, most of the professionals recalled IBM, as it is in the market for many years and known for its quality products. Dell and NetApp also scored high. Interestingly, the winner of the NAS category has got the third spot in the Spontaneous Awareness followed by HPE and Seagate.

When we asked enterprises which brand’s storage they are using currently, NetApp scored the highest, i.e. 19 per cent. Dell got the next spot with a score of 17 per cent, followed by HPE with a score of 13 and IBM and Seagate both scoring 12.

For Future Preference, most professionals were with NetApp closely followed by the competitors like IBM, Dell, and HPE. All the four brands were competing closely with each other, but for the fifth rank had some major gap.

When we asked for the reason for choosing the brand, most of the respondents considered NetApp for its brand name, quality and after sales support / service. Dell was popular for its brand name and quality. IBM recognized for its after sales support / service, HPE for the quality and Seagate for its price.