Gabriel Consulting Group Report: IBM Leads UNIX Market in Customer Preference and Satisfaction

1 January 1970

Gabriel Consulting Group (GCG) announced today that IBM is the leading vendor among UNIX customers, according to a newly published IT industry research study conducted by the firm. GCG's 4th Quarter UNIX Vendor Preference Survey queried 197 enterprise UNIX customers about their experiences with and perceptions of the major system vendors on a wide range of criteria. IBM notched wins in both technology and vendor support survey categories.

"We were surprised by several of the results, particularly the order of finish," said Dan Olds, GCG Principal Analyst and CEO. "IBM finished first with very strong results, and HP scored a solid number two; we expected to see Sun Microsystems challenging for first place or at least a strong second place. As the largest UNIX vendor in terms of number of installed systems, a third place finish should put their management on notice that their installed base may be vulnerable."

Although the survey is a snapshot of current customer attitudes and perceptions, Olds believes it is also a predictor of future sales trends and momentum shifts in the industry.

Survey responses were normalized to remove vendor bias from the results. The normalized VPI (Vendor Preference Index) scores are then used to rank the vendors. The survey consists of three categories:

-- Technology Criteria: 13 separate categories covering system
performance, scalability, availability, etc.
- IBM was on top with an overall VPI score of 109 vs. 92.6 for
HP, with Sun trailing at 76.5.
- IBM built this win with strong scores on system scalability
and performance criteria.
- HP posted narrow wins in operating system and partitioning
features categories.
- Sun did not win on any of the technology criteria and finished
third in 9 of 13 categories.
-- Vendor Criteria: 11 separate categories including quality of
service & sales organizations, vendor adherence to roadmaps, vendor
track record on keeping promises, etc.
- IBM takes first with an overall VPI score of 100.97; Sun is
second at 84.33, with HP third at 76.94.
- IBM posted wins in service & sales categories, also scoring
strongly with customers on issues dealing with adherence to
product roadmaps and keeping their promises.
- HP was number one with customers in terms of producing the
most value for the service dollar.
- Sun scored well on commitment to UNIX questions, posting their
only outright wins in the survey.
-- Futures
- Most respondents believed IBM would be the dominant UNIX
vendor in 5 years, with Sun second, and HP third.
- Customer selected HP as the vendor most likely to leave the
UNIX market, followed by Sun.

The survey was conducted in October and November of 2005. The median survey respondent controlled 25-50 UNIX servers and works in an organization with 4,000 to 10,000 total employees. 80 percent of respondents work in data centers that have at least two different UNIX vendors, while 35 percent report that their data centers have three or more UNIX vendors.

GCG plans to run the survey every six months in order to track trends and spot changes in market momentum.

About Gabriel Consulting Group

Gabriel Consulting Group provides technology research, analysis, and consulting services to a wide variety of business and non-profit organizations.