This Magic Quadrant (see Figure 1) represents the current and probable relative strengths of vendors in the midrange and high-end modular disk array market at a moment in time by using a combination of product and nonproduct criteria. It is not a direct measure of product attractiveness, vendor market share, vendor viability or a vendor’s support capabilities.
A vendor’s position in a Magic Quadrant is affected not just by the vendor’s own actions, but by the actions of its competitors. This is the conceptual equivalent of marking on a curve or operating in a marketplace that is constantly evolving. Since the market’s ability to absorb new technology, services and messages is limited, Magic Quadrants include both forward- and backward-looking evaluation criteria. This makes it impossible for even major product announcements to instantly and dramatically alter a vendor’s position in the Magic Quadrant, because without demonstrable success in the marketplace, which takes time, it is nothing more than an announcement.
The use of backward- and forward-looking criteria in positioning vendors in a Magic Quadrant also favors vendors moving from the Visionaries to the Challengers quadrant and from the Challengers to the Leaders quadrant when things are going well. It also favors vendors moving from the Niche Players to the Visionaries quadrant when expanding their product offerings. And when things are going poorly, it favors vendors in the Leaders quadrant falling back into the Challengers and even into the Niche Players quadrant.
While the move from the Visionaries to the Challengers quadrant implies a decrease in a vendor’s completeness of vision, which is counterintuitive, it is really highlighting that a vendor has reached a level of maturity, acceptance and viability that qualifies it to be classified as a challenger to vendors listed in the Leaders quadrant. In other words, it is a step forward.
It is reasonable to use a Magic Quadrant to ease concerns about a company’s long-term viability or evaluate a vendor’s ability to implement its product development, marketing and service/support capabilities and sales strategies. However, using it to justify vendor or product selection is not an appropriate use of a Magic Quadrant.
Nonetheless, Magic Quadrants are good for highlighting key vendors in a market and helping IT personnel select a shortlist of vendors to evaluate. It is fine to buy from vendors that are not in the Leaders quadrant, particularly if your business needs require a specific feature set better provided by vendors in one of the other quadrants. This is particularly applicable to vendors that are growing their revenues and have demonstrated long-term viability. In fact, depending on the situation, Gartner will recommend including one or more of the storage vendors that fall outside the Leaders quadrant to be included on an end user’s evaluation shortlist to gain access to innovative features or to address a particular storage infrastructure requirement.
Moreover, Gartner readers should not compare the placement of vendors from previous midrange disk array Magic Quadrants with this update. The market is changing, and vendors continue to evolve their product offerings.
The criteria used to evaluate a vendor and position it on the Magic Quadrant are identified and weighted in the Evaluation Criteria section. Gartner’s assessments take into account the vendor’s current product offering and overall strategies, as well as its publicly available future initiatives and product road maps. We also factor in how well vendors are driving market change or at least adapting to changing market requirements.
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