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Follow UsIBM is a runner-up across segments, but not too far from HP and Dell in the SME segment. The number of players that made it to the elite Users’ Choice club this time has reduced.
In spite of continuing innovations in storage technologies over the year, not many brands have made it to the Users' Choice club this year compared to the last one. HP tops the Users' Choice club in this category in both employee segments. Dell has tied-up for the top spot in the 100-499 segment and IBM is the first runner-up in the 500+ segment.
Once again, in the 100-499 segment, those customers who were not loyal did not know which other brand to shift to. The winner HP for instance, had 96% loyal users, but the remaining 4% didn't know which other brand they were likely to shift to. Likewise, Dell too had 96% loyal users, and the remaining 4% unsure of which brand to shift to. IBM had 100% brand loyalty and so was the case for EMC/Legato.
In the 500+ employees segment, HP had 98% brand loyalty, with the remaining 2% not sure about which brand to shift to. IBM, Dell and EMC/Legato were better off here with 100% brand loyalty each.
So while the brand loyalties are high in this segment as like last year, there still are users who're unsure about which other brand to shift to. Maybe it's due to a continuing lack of awareness, or maybe moving to a different network storage solution is not an easy decision to take inspite of rising efforts towards interoperability and standardization. Possibly network storage vendors need to find out more from their customers about what they really want.
In both employee segments, most existing owners of network storage products gave product reliability as the reason for having chosen their brand. For future purchase also, the reason was more or less the same except in the case of IBM, where brand value mattered more. For EMC in the 100-499 employees segment, an equal percentage of respondents also gave brand value as the reason they were likely to go with the brand, apart from product reliability.