Server Vendors' High-Availability Services: Magic Quadrant

Gartner

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Markets, M-18-0369

A. Mac Neela, B. Igou, E. Rocco

Research Note

30 September 2002

Server Vendors' High-Availability Services: Magic Quadrant

User demand for high availability of critical systems is

driving the market for high-availability services. This Magic

Quadrant will help users find a server vendor suited to their

high-availability needs.

Sustaining high levels of system availability continues to be a key

issue and concern for many organizations. A major reason for

this is that increasingly complex system architectures make it

extremely hard to manage systems to very high or continuous

levels of availability. The harsh economic climate has

compounded this problem by increasing the number of mergers,

acquisitions and changes to business models; these make it

even harder for IT managers to maintain high availability for

critical systems.

As a result, the services capability, experience and skill of

system vendors in meeting availability objectives are an

important part of any organization's IT strategy. To help

organizations choose the right server vendor for their specific

availability needs, Gartner created a Magic Quadrant that

positions nine leading server vendors according to their

high-availability services strategy, offerings and capabilities (see

Figure 1).

The vendors analyzed were Bull, Dell, Fujitsu Technology

Solutions, Inc. (FTSI), Hewlett-Packard (HP) (after the merger

with Compaq), IBM, NEC, Stratus, Sun Microsystems and

Unisys. Gartner selected these vendors on the basis of their

share of the worldwide server market and of the capabilities and

strategies of their overall high-availability services business.

Note that the Magic Quadrant takes into account each vendor's

total strategy for high-availability services, regardless of

technology platform (fault-tolerant servers, midrange servers,

mainframes and so on).

Core Topic

Sourcing: Sourcing - ESP Evaluation and Selection

Key Issues

What criteria should be used to evaluate specific market/service offerings? How are individual ESPs positioned in the competitive landscape?

Definitions and Criteria

Gartner defines high-availability services as services that provide

the highest level of proactive and reactive support; they include

consulting and integration services that maximize the available

uptime and minimize the unplanned downtime of operating

systems and hardware (see also Gartner's "High-Availability

Services Forecast Released" [ITSV-WW-DA-0113] and

"The Competitive State of High-Availability Support Services"

[ITPS-WW-FR-0101]).

We examined the server vendors from two perspectives: their

"completeness of vision" and their "ability to execute."

Completeness of vision: The server vendor's focus and

investment in the future of high-availability services. This

perspective evaluates how successful a company will be at

meeting the future needs of its customers based on Gartner's

scenario for where the high-availability services market is

heading.

Ability to execute: The server vendor's focus on delivering

high-availability services. This perspective examines how well a

company is doing based on current business and technological

realities and on what is being delivered.

From these two perspectives, 15 specific rating criteria were

weighted and used to evaluate the vendors' high-availability

services.

Specific rating criteria for server vendors' completeness of vision:

• Long-term vision and strategic plan for high-availability

services

• High-availability services for the full IT life cycle

• Use of holistic methodology for high-availability services

• Escalation process for high-availability support

• Reimbursement of customers for lost revenue

• Customer skills training and education offerings

• Process or mechanism for ensuring service quality

Specific rating criteria for server vendors' ability to execute:

• Specialists in high-availability services

• Remote-site recovery capability

• Relationship management

• Alliances and partnerships

• Uptime guarantee

• Guaranteed restoration time for hardware

• Guaranteed restoration time for software

For each criterion, we scored vendors from one to 10, where one

indicated "worst in class" (or "has no offering") and 10 indicated

"best in class." These scores were based on vendor briefings,

information collected from end-user contacts, general Gartner

knowledge and other secondary means.

The Magic Quadrant was not based directly on customer

interviews, and the results should not be taken as indications of

customers' satisfaction levels.

Completeness of Vision

Ability to

Execute

Niche

Players

Visionaries

Challengers

Leaders

As of Sep 02

FTSI = Fujitsu Technology Solutions, Inc. Source: Gartner Research

Figure 1

Each vendor was put into one of four quadrants that chart their

current capabilities against their future promise: Leaders,

Visionaries, Challengers and Niche Players.

Leaders

Vendors in this quadrant are doing well and have great prospects

for the future. They have a long-term vision for high-availability

services, coupled with service offerings, expertise and

methodologies to fulfill that vision.

Vendors in this quadrant include FTSI, HP, IBM, Sun and Unisys.

IBM

IBM's leadership position reflects strong results in many aspects

of its vision and ability to execute. IBM has the world's largest

services organization and the widest array of services dedicated

to high availability, from business and IT consulting services

through to directly delivered business-continuity services.

IBM's history of providing high-availability services, and the

maturity of the processes and technologies it uses to deliver

them, make it a leader in this sphere of activity.

IBM does not have a standard restoration time for failed

hardware and software, but is willing and able to write

customized service-level agreements (SLAs).

Hewlett-Packard

The high-availability strategy and offerings of HP's services

organization have been bolstered by the strengths of Compaq's

services organization. HP is arguably the strongest industry

player dedicated to high-availability Unix service and support.

Its strong leadership position reflects its global coverage; its

broad base of availability offerings; its strong

high-availability management; its business-continuity offerings; and its

ability to offer a standard commitment to system restoration for

all of its customers. HP was the first server vendor to promote

the "five nines" vision of 99.999 percent uptime; however, it

believes that customized SLAs are the only way for vendors to

ensure that the different needs of each high-availability services

environment are met.

FTSI

FTSI's position in the Leaders quadrant reflects more than 30

years' experience with, and focus on, high-availability systems

and services. Part of this experience derives from the mainframe

heritage of Amdahl, which was combined with FTSI in early

2002.

FTSI has well-developed and standardized methodologies based

on the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)

framework. It also has embedded quality practices, such as total

quality management (TQM). FTSI's challenge will be to apply its

capabilities to offer industry-leading uptime guarantees and

restoration times for hardware and software.

Unisys

Like IBM, Unisys's service culture has been steeped in high

availability from the outset. Its global coverage and process for

support escalation are noteworthy.

Unisys's internal processes for ensuring the quality of its

high-availability services are a particular strength. Unisys monitors

and improves service quality in several ways; these include a

strong ES7000 Advisory Council, a client focus managerial role

and a Total Quality Process.

Unisys's service offerings and geographical reach are not quite

as extensive as those of IBM and HP. However, Gartner expects

Unisys to continue to invest in high-availability services and

processes and to improve its position in the Leaders quadrant.

Sun Microsystems

Sun has invested heavily and done much to bolster its

high-availability services and capabilities. Its SunUP program is a

holistic approach to high availability, centered on people,

processes and products. Sun takes service quality seriously — in

fact, compensation for all of its high-availability services

personnel is adjusted on the basis of this metric.

Sun also maintains many strong alliances and partnerships.

These form the basis of its service delivery model, whereby

partners deliver a wide range of services to its customers.

Sun's geographic coverage, skill set and the maturity of its

service processes are less strong than those of IBM. As a result,

Gartner believes that Sun cannot be considered a "full service"

provider at present. However, Sun is determined to be the best

provider of high-availability support for its own products.

Challengers

Vendors in this quadrant execute well at present, but either have

a less-mature understanding of market trends and directions or

are less good at articulating their vision. They may not have all

the elements needed for future success, but they do have a solid

track record of execution.

Vendors in this quadrant include NEC and Stratus.

NEC

NEC is well-positioned, its 40 years in the mainframe business

having given it long experience of high-availability systems.

NEC has a strong ability to execute, owing to its strength in

service methodologies, support escalation processes and quality

management; also to its solid alliances with technology providers

such as Intel and Microsoft.

To enter the Leaders quadrant, NEC will need to focus the

following: capabilities to guarantee software restoration; strong

practices for account management; and capabilities for disaster

recovery and business continuity.

Stratus

Although Stratus lacks the scale of the other vendors considered

in this Research Note, it is fully committed to server availability.

Stratus, having built on its fault-tolerant hardware solutions, has

the services experience, dedication and capabilities to assure

high availability. Fault-tolerant systems were once a small, niche

market, but Stratus has steadily provided the basis for

mainstream adoption of Windows 2000 as a fault-tolerant

platform.

For Stratus to continue to develop its leadership in this market, it

will need to engage more in business-continuity services. It will

also need the ability to reimburse customers for lost revenue

when required.

Niche Players

Vendors in this quadrant are doing well in only a small segment

of the high-availability services market, or are unable to innovate

or outperform other vendors. Niche players tend to deliver

tactical rather than strategic high-availability services. They also

tend to serve a smaller segment of the high-availability services

market, and may be confined to a specific geographical or

Vendors in this quadrant include Dell and Bull.

Dell

Dell is a relative newcomer to the high-availability computing

space. Consequently, it is vital that Dell has a robust strategy for

high-availability services.

Dell has created its Premier Enterprise Services portfolio and its

Platinum Support Services to begin to address the support needs

of its higher-end servers. Dell has a focused, pragmatic approach

of providing professional services and support services for its

solutions and does a solid job of packaging and delivering these

services.

Dell is not a "full service" provider, and so is not "everything to

everybody." However, it does need to catch up with those

vendors in the Leaders quadrant that have greater geographic

scope, a broader range of professional services and more

high-availability experts.

Dell's strategy for high-availability services is well-positioned.

Moreover, it will continue to invest in this area. Based on Dell's

planned level of investment and history of focusing on services,

execution and presence in the Intel architecture server arena,

Gartner expects Dell to improve its position in the Magic

Quadrant during the next few years.

Bull

Bull is strongly focused on Bull AIX and Windows NT

high-availability services. Although it is increasing the number of

platforms it can support, it is still only in the early stages of

developing a robust portfolio of standardized high-availability

service solutions.

Bull has a robust high-availability service methodology and a

strong model for process escalation. However, Bull is weak in

service-quality process mechanisms, alliances and partnerships,

and in its capability for remote-site recovery.

Bull is clearly focused on the Western European market; it has

little coverage of Asia/Pacific, Eastern Europe, the Middle East

and Africa, Latin America and North America.

Visionaries

None of the vendors considered in this Research Note is

positioned in the Visionaries quadrant.

Bottom Line: Organizations that are designing, developing and

maintaining a high-availability strategy for their IT systems will

continue to find server vendors' services divisions an essential

resource. They will also find them important for the success of

related availability objectives, such as operational efficiency and

quality control.

Organizations can use this Magic Quadrant in two ways: to gain

insight into the relative positioning of the server vendors'

capabilities for high-availability services; and to help them

choose which vendor is best-suited to their IT infrastructure and

availability needs.

Most server vendors can deliver, either directly or via partners,

adequate high-availability services and support for the equipment

they sell. In determining which vendor is the most suitable,

organizations should consider the following factors: their specific

requirements, practices and limitations; how well-matched their

business culture is with that of the vendor; their vertical-market

expertise; and their geographical coverage.

They also need to consider carefully what SLAs and associated

risk-and-reward arrangements they can negotiate with the

vendor. The leading server vendors are able to be both

comprehensive and flexible in delivering services that extend

total system availability.