At the end of the day, it wasn’t the minor technological differences that made the decision for us. Sure, we believed that EMC’s VMAXe was the truly enterprise-class array. The ace, though, was product positioning.
We have two SANs. We have a CLARiiON CX3-40 from EMC, which is legacy and as the market sometimes calls it, monolithic. It needs to go. We also have a 3PAR T400, which is as flexible as the day we bought it and has plenty of life left in it, due to its architecture (even though we acquired it in 2008). Thus, when the cards were on the table, only HP had the ability to offer a “free” upgrade to our T400 as well as the new V400.
The upgrade turns our T-series into a multi-tier array with SSD, FC, and NL, and the V-series replaces our aging CLARiiON. EMC tried to compete, but all they could offer was a “deal” less appealing than the original single-array proposition.
Honestly, I felt bad for them, because there was nothing they could do unless they literally took a deep loss (no funny money about it). HP’s solution was the equivalent of two new, good, flexible, low-maintenance SANs. EMC just learned how to be flexible and match 3PAR, so their older arrays (one of which was part of their attempt at competition) just didn’t equate.
It’s going to be another hard sell in 2-3 years when we open the next RFP, because HP/3PAR will now have a monopoly on the floor. Who knows, though? Maybe HP will stumble with their new golden egg, or maybe EMC will figure out how to undercut HP with price while not sacrificing features. For now, the trophy goes to HP. Congrats.