ARC 2010: Data Protection Software

Much of EMC's success can be attributed to a high score of 95.8 in the Product Innovation category, bolstered by a score of 103.1 in the Product Quality and Reliability and a 97.5 in Richness of Product Features/Functionality criteria.

/**/ /**/Channel partners who have worked with EMC, and its security division RSA, say that its data protection technologies have gotten a lot of traction because of EMC's enterprise reach and because of its strong backing.

Dan Thormosgaard, director of solutions architecture for Kansas City, Mo.-based Fishnet Security, said EMC's data protection technologies were gaining traction over its competitors because of the company's ability to dedicate resources to beat out the competition. "Other companies, they may not expend the same amount of money or have the same attention or executive management," Thormosgaard said.

Partners gave EMC a total average score of 82.7 in the Support category. The company excelled in both the Pre-sales and Post-Sales support criteria, with respective scores of 85.8 and 86.7. EMC was trailed in the area of Support by Symantec, which achieved a 75.9.

EMC partners ranked the company strong in the Partnership category with an overall score of 85.8, bolstered by a high score in Revenue and Profit Potential. Partners say that the company's enterprise focus lends itself to high-margin deals.

"When we work on an enterprise deal, they're relatively large deals. It lends itself to being profitable," Thormosgaard said, but added that EMC's combined direct and channel model could be "challenging."

"When they're at enterprise level, they do dominate that particular space because they have a fair amount of traction. A lot of good visibility, and that's very helpful."