Gartner has updated its primary storage platform Magic Quadrant ratings, resulting in three of last year’s Leaders being displaced into the Challengers box.
Update: Huawei comment added – 24 September 2024
Gartner analysts Jeff Vogel and Chandra Mukhyala have redefined a primary storage platform (PSP) as providing “standardized enterprise storage products, along with platform-native service capabilities to support structured data applications. PSP products like primary enterprise storage arrays provide mandatory and common enterprise-class primary storage features and capabilities needed to support the platform. Platform-native services like storage as a service (STaaS) and ransomware protection, with PSP product capabilities, are required to support platform-native services.”
They say the PSP market has evolved “in conjunction with the demand for hybrid, multi-domain platform-native storage services, extending on-premises services to public cloud, edge, and colocation environments.” In effect, it’s no longer enough to provide on-premises block storage array hardware and software. That software has to run in the main public clouds, provide a cloud consumption model and cyber-resiliency in the cloud, on-premises, and in hybrid environments.
Their strategic planning assumptions are:
- By 2027, consumption-based platform SLA guarantees will replace over 50 percent of product feature requirements in storage selection decisions, up from less than 5 percent in 2024.
- By 2028, consumption-based storage as a service (STaaS) will replace over 33 percent of enterprise storage capital expenditure (capex), up from less than 15 percent in 2024.
- By 2028, more than two-thirds of critical application primary storage infrastructure will employ cyber liability detection and protection capabilities, up from less than 5 percent in 2024.
Here’s the 2024 PSP Magic Quadrant (MQ) diagram:
Because of this redefinition, the suppliers in 2023 MQ edition’s Leaders box, shown below, have mostly received lower ratings on the horizontal Completeness of Vision axis and moved to the left, with three – Hitachi Vantara, Huawei, and Infinidat – crossing the Leaders box boundary to become Challengers.
Huawei’s Michael Fan, Marketing VP of Data Storage Product Line, tells us: “Gartner’s decision to place so much emphasis on North America does not give an accurate picture of the global market and risks misleading customers. Huawei remains a world-leader in data storage products and solutions, and is trusted by customers in over 150 countries and regions.”
IEIT Systems was a Challenger last year and has moved down the vertical Ability to Execute axis to become a Niche Player. DDN, a Niche Player last year, has exited the MQ “because it did not meet the minimum requirements and inclusion criteria for platform-native services,” while Zadara has entered for the first time, as a Niche Player.
This year, Pure Storage has the highest Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute ratings in the Leaders box, followed by HPE and NetApp, then IBM and Dell.
The Gartner analysts promote the concept of an on-premises software-defined storage system that separates compute and storage resources, which helps compute and capacity resources scale independently and cost-effectively. They mention that Pure Storage does not offer this capability and neither do Hitachi Vantara nor NetApp.
The analysts also note that high-capacity (60 TB or more) QLC flash drives are being offered by some suppliers, but not all, as an alternative to hard disk drive storage. HPE has made the 2024 PSP MQ report available here.
Bootnote
The “Magic Quadrant” is a 2D space defined by axes labeled “Ability To Execute” and “Completeness of Vision,” and split into four squares tagged “Visionaries” and “Niche Players” at the bottom, and “Challengers” and “Leaders” at the top. The best placed vendors are in the top right Leaders box and with a balance between execution ability and vision completion. The nearer they are to the top right corner of that box the better.
