As 2018 comes to an end, we can all look back on it as a very successful year for Dell Storage. It’s been a year jam-packed with new innovations, products, industry accolades and recognitions, and based on recent IDC Worldwide Enterprise Storage Systems Tracker data – now three quarters of share gain in a row. To achieve all of this, we came together throughout the year to execute as a unified company and bring outstanding products to market for our customers in support of their IT Transformation efforts. As a result, both channel partners and customers have recognized the excellence we bring in the development of Dell Storage products.
We thank our customers and partners for recognizing Dell for what we deliver to you – innovative and rich feature/functionality, our best quality and reliability, and an industry-leading Future-Proof Loyalty Program – with every storage system we ship.
And so, as we look back with pride on a transformative year at Dell, I’d like to briefly share some of the 2018 highlights with you:
Dell Inc. continues to capture share according to IDC
Today IDC published its latest 2018 Worldwide Enterprise Storage Systems Tracker – a pivot table that provides market size and vendor share for hundreds of worldwide technology markets.
As we talked about in our recent FYQ3 earnings, Dell had a strong quarter in storage. IDC reported a 31.3% revenue share in external storage for Dell, Inc. – representing +23% year-over-year revenue growth and +2.6 points of y/y share gain. We believe our strong results in the tracker validates our track record of consistently delivering meaningful technology innovation to customers. In doing so, we can report with appreciation and pride that our storage business has achieved three quarters of consecutive share gain in the external storage systems product category.
Dell Storage systems win THREE CRN Product Awards
Each year CRN readers and editorial staff recognize the industry’s most innovative products in a variety of hardware and software categories. CRN also recognizes one vendor for overall excellence in technology innovation with its Editors’ Choice award. Winners are determined based on many factors including the CRN editorial board and a survey that’s sent to >4,000 solution providers who respond with direct satisfaction feedback among partners and their customers.
We are pleased to announce that Dell PowerMax has been named the overall winner of the 2018 CRN Product of the Year Award for storage and the 2018 CRN Technology Innovator Award for Enterprise Storage. But there’s more! CRN also named the Dell Unity 650F All-Flash Array in its 2018 Product of the Year awards as the Midrange Storage subcategory winner for Technology.
These product awards and overall recognition are testament to the best-of-breed technical innovation, feature/functionality, reliability and quality Dell continues to deliver across our entire primary storage portfolio and affirms our commitment to invest in innovation for the future.
SC5020 wins second Editor’s Choice in four months
Again, from our Midrange portfolio, the SC5020 secures yet another accolade for Dell Storage with the 2018 Editor’s Choice from Storage Review. 
It’s the second year in a row the publication has selected an SC array for one of the coveted Editor’s Choice honors (SC9000 won in 2017). Plus, just this summer, the same SC5020 model was also the 2018 IT Pro Editor’s Choice. Industry acclaim for the SC Series is on the upswing! I encourage you to take a look at this detailed new Storage Review article that includes 30 charts and graphics highlighting SC5020’s phenomenal performance – as well as its “sleek” management capabilities running the latest 7.3 level firmware.
Momentum for Dell Isilon and ECS
For the third straight year, Dell was recognized by Gartner as a leader in the 2018 Magic Quadrant for Distributed File Systems and Object Storage with its Dell Isilon and Dell ECS platforms. The report evaluates Distributed File and Object Storage vendors that help enterprises manage the rapid growth in unstructured data.
Gartner, 2018 Magic Quadrant for Distributed File and Object Storage
To help organizations quickly ramp their AI efforts, we made some exciting announcements this year. For customers looking to leverage a pre-validated hardware and software stack for their Deep Learning initiatives, we launched the Dell Ready Solutions for AI: Deep Learning with NVIDIA in August, which features Isilon All-Flash storage with Dell PowerEdge Servers and Dell Networking. More recently, we expanded our collaboration with NVIDIA by announcing a new reference architecture for AI featuring NVIDIA DGX-1 servers complemented with the high-performance of Isilon All-Flash storage. With a true scale-out architecture that enables high performance at PB-scale datasets, Isilon is the perfect storage platform for AI/Deep Learning initiatives.
Executing on our portfolio strategy
Lastly, you’ve heard us say throughout the year that we need to deliver a streamlined storage portfolio that 1) is simple to understand – one product for each market segment and 2) delivers clearly differentiated products within their intended market segment – low-end to midrange to enterprise to the unstructured file and object storage segments. As Jeff Clarke Vice Chairman Products and Operations has stated, “An effective product development discipline and methodology and structure is when you streamline things for speed and velocity.” And that’s exactly what we’ve been focused on in 2018 and will continue through the next year.
In 2018, we’ve successfully executed on significant portions of our portfolio simplification strategy to bring you Dell PowerMax for your high-end enterprise storage needs and Dell PowerVault for entry-level price-sensitive businesses. Even though these products have only been available for a relatively brief time, they are already demonstrating immense value for customers around the globe.
PowerMax is off to a great start and is performing ahead of our expectations. We are winning for all the reasons that we planned: 1) NVMe done right proving that architecture matters when trying to deliver the best performance with predictability and data services; 2) PowerMax is surprising customers with its simplicity and access at lower price-points.
In addition to PowerMax and PowerVault being off to strong starts, CloudIQ, our free cloud-based storage analytics and monitoring application, is becoming the umbrella over all our platforms. It has been affirming to myself and my team that feedback on our strategy is resonating well with customers, partners and analysts.
Overall our strategy is working. Thank you – customers and partners alike – for helping to make 2018 a very successful year for Dell Storage. Your business, loyalty, confidence, and partnership are things Dell never takes for granted.
I wish you and your families a very happy and healthy holiday season and New Year.
i Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Distributed File Systems and Object Storage, Julia Palmer, Raj Bala, John McArthur, 18 October 2018
