Deciding which products are best for your clients can be daunting. Comparing vendors, products, price points, and service agreements might seem easier for specific clients, and not so straightforward for others. Yet it is a cross to bear in this industry. To overcome the situation, the question must be asked: what is the best way to approach the situation?
Three key options come to mind. The first is to sift through product literature, which can seem overwhelming. A second alternative is to consult sales representatives; however their opinions might be biased.
Another option is to consult third parties, for example, newspapers, trade journals and analyst firms, which offer a neutral opinion of technology. One of the programs Info-Tech Research Group offers is entitled the Decision Diamond award. This award recognizes outstanding vendors which provide quality products and services.
For example, blade servers for small businesses were compared, based upon relative product and vendor rankings, with a summary of product strengths and weaknesses, as well as recommendations for product selection, provided in report format.
Blade servers offer a small physical footprint to high density computing environments. They are used to consolidate data centres, and to manage and store multiple amounts of information. As the market matures, they offer customers products featuring costs lower or equivalent to rank-mounted solutions. In other words, blade price points are quickly reaching commodity levels. This trend helps the smaller organization make the decision to implement a blade solution, but still, the debate as to which vendor and which products, continues.
Small enterprise market blade servers are defined as providing: rack-mountable chassis, support for at least six processor blades, onboard management and I/O modules, and shared power supplies and cooling fans. Price points began at about $15,000 for a basic six processor blade server. This range is comparable to the cost of a rack-mounted server solution. The products in the comparison were Dell’s PowerEdge 1955, Egenera’s BladeFrame ES, HP’s BladeSystem c-Class, and IBM’s BladeCenter H.
Vendors were evaluated on two main areas: stability/visibility and strategy. Products were compared on five main areas: pricing, features, architecture, ease of use and support.
Based upon the criteria, highlights include:
*IBM also is a strong company with a broad product line. Its third generation blade server provides backwards compatibility and state-of-the-art technology. IBM is heavily committed to blade technology.
*HP is a robust organization, offering a broad product line and strong focus on small and mid-sized enterprises, with an excellent blade offering with state-of-the-are technology and good pricing on entry level systems.
*Egenera is heavily focused on high availability and mission critical computing. Its products ship with full redundancy capabilities built-in.
*Dell is very focused on the small-to-mid-sized market for sales, marketing and service, provides factory customization, configuration and testing of blade servers, well-known branding, and a price leader for server consolidation solutions.
Comparing the four organizations can be intimidating. Through the Decision Diamond analysis, Info-Tech identified that Dell offers the best product for small businesses. The complete break-down is available in the report.
For the solution provider, having a neutral third party’s recommendation can prove to be a helpful device when deciding upon a specific vendor and product. Having documentation to support the decision can a valuable sales tool, as it highlights the benefits as seen through the eyes of a neutral third party. Finally, using the advice of a third party can help easily identify the decision.
Michelle Warren is a senior analyst in the Indaba Division of the London, Ont.-based Info-Tech Research Group
