NetApp, EMC in Benchmark Brawl: Page 3 of 3

“When making price/performance comparisons, EMC uses the SPEC SFS numbers from apples-to-apples configurations along with estimated list pricing based on several readily available sources, including NetApp's competitive quotes and others,” EMC spokesman Justin Bartinoski says. “If NetApp wants to share their average street price, we'd be happy to recalculate the price/performance comparisons.”

The battle between EMC and NetApp is heating up now that EMC has reclaimed the NAS market-share lead according to the latest IDC

numbers (see Storage Sales Soar Entering '04). Yet skirmishes over benchmark performances are nothing new between these two. Both have been involved in similar spats:

• EMC vs NetApp: NAS TCO Tussle
  Last September, NetApp took issue with a Meta Group Inc. report that gave EMC a total-cost-of-ownership edge, running databases based on SPEC numbers. NetApp called the analysis flawed, contending SPEC SFS does not allow oranges-to-oranges comparison of system price to performance.
• Is NetApp SANbagging?
  NetApp’s numbers came under dispute in this dustup a year ago. NetApp published a white paper favorably comparing its internal SAN benchmark testing to the results published by EMC and Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) on their Websites. EMC called the claims “a marketing stunt.”
• Does EMC's DMX Measure Up?
  EMC’s claim that its Symmetrix DMX was the fastest on the market 13 months ago came under fire from its SAN rivals because EMC did not use industry benchmarks to back its boast.

— Dave Raffo, Senior Editor, Byte and Switch