The Voice of the Customer

The 451 Group

Founded in 2000New York City: HQOffices in London,

San Francisco & Boston

Staff of 170+30+ Analysts

Analyzing the business of enterprise IT innovation

The 451 Group

451 Research is focused on the business of enterprise IT innovation. The company’s analysts provide critical and timely insight into the competitive dynamics of innovation in emerging technology segments.

Tier1 Research is a single-source research and advisory firm covering the multi-tenant datacenter, hosting, IT and cloud-computing sectors, blending the best of industry and financial research.

The Uptime Institute is ‘The Global Data Center Authority’ and a pioneer in the creation and facilitation of end-user knowledge communities to improve reliability and uninterruptible availability in datacenter facilities.

TheInfoPro is a leading IT advisory and research firm that provides real-world perspectives on the customer and market dynamics of the enterprise information technology landscape, harnessing the collective knowledge and insight of leading IT organizations worldwide.

ChangeWave Research is a research firm that identifies and quantifies ‘change’ in consumer spending behavior, corporate purchasing, and industry, company and technology trends.

TheInfoPro Business Overview

Fundamental, ”voice of the customer” research on key Information Technology (IT) sectors.

Founded in 2002 as an unbiased alternative to Gartner.

Transparency: no analyst spin or bias. Direct, factual results provided to our clients.

Source: One on one interviews with thousands of pre-screened IT Professionals within our proprietary network, repeated every six months.

Focus is IT Infrastructure spanning: Storage, Servers, Networking, Information Security, Cloud Computing

“The TIPNetwork has been an invaluable source for Verizon to understand where we are compared to the industry as it relates to technology adoption and how the vendors we use or are considering, perform in the marketplace. It is the only source today for us to get true peer comparison data.”

Kevin Shine, SVP of Infrastructure

TIPNetwork: IT Professionals Representing over $23 bn in Buying Power Rely on TIP Data for Peer Benchmarking and Vendor Selection

“ I go to the time series of vendor performance data first — that gives me data points from customers on how the names I follow are doing that I simply cannot get anywhere else. Then I go to the Technology Heat Index™ that shows me what that market is looking to spend money on and gives me a direct feed on the winning providers”

“ TIP is the only organization I have seen that gets at a very opaque area; enterprise Information Technology spending by vendor and technology.”

TIPNetwork : Institutional Investors Use TIP’s Customer Data to Build Long & Short Positions

TIPNetwork: Technology CompaniesFact Based, Customer Data Extensively Leveraged

“ At NetApp, TIP's work permeates many parts of our organization. Their research brings us valuable insights into what buyers and users of storage care about most — and how our solutions are deployed at enterprises around the world. TIP distinguishes their work with a deep understanding of the competitive landscape and keen analysis of customers' budget data. We know we can count on them to deliver meaningful and actionable research — and that is a real advantage to our planning and execution.”

Dan Warmenhoven. Chairman of the Board

How TIP’s Research is Leveraged by Technology Companies

Competitive Intelligence: Detailed strengths & weaknesses of vendors both chosen & rejected and the vulnerability of incumbents

Resource Optimization: Sales Training, Product Management, Marketing, R&D, prioritize new product role outs

Go to Market Strategy, Messaging & Positioning: What is your target market embracing? Avoiding?

Lead Generation & Branding: Press Releases, Webinars, Research Papers, Speaking Series

Business Development: Idea generation & Due Diligence for Partner and/or M&A Activity

Investor & Analyst Relations

“Psychographics of the IT Professional”: Narrative commentary conveys buyers’ preferences, behavior and decision making process

Presentation & Content Builders: For sales, press, events & analysts

Budget share shift and allocations: Planned features and functionality with associated spending allocation

Historical Changes: Six month waves afford the ability to track the impact of: new products, marketing campaigns, sales incentives, distribution agreements & personnel changes

Saves Time and Money on Primary Research Projects: TIP data includes answers many are seeking

TheInfoPro’s Technology Sector Coverage

Storage Storage ManagementVirtualization (Block/File)Storage NetworkingDeduplication,

10GbE vs. 8FCGbpsBackup & RecoveryReplication, WAFS, Archiving

Information Security Security ManagementNetwork Security Infrastructure Security

Cloud Computing Internal and External IaaSPaaS

Servers VirtualizationGrid Computing BladesChip SetsLinuxServer Management

NetworkingData Communications &

Application AccelerationNext Generation Voice

Infrastructure Mobility and Wireless

Desktop Virtualization

Methodology & Research Process

Structured Interview Process: 60- to 90-minute interviews repeated in six month “waves” TIP Researchers, who average 20 years of IT experience, interview. IT Decision makers – pre-screened for domain experience

at Global 2000 companiesTIP quantitative and qualitative data includes: Customer Spending: future spending plans by vendor and size of spend Vendor Shortlists: who’s in use and who’s in plan Vendor Performance: customer ratings, who’s vulnerable

to customer loss, and the vendor(s) they’re vulnerable to Technology Roadmaps: What’s hot and what’s not > TIP’s patented

Technology Heat Index™ Time Series: Unmatched historical data is captured for

comparison purposesData is highly customizable by dimensions such as: Industry Revenue Installed Technology Provider Environment (i.e., capacity, budget, employees)

Company Profile Overall

Budgets & Changes

Pain Points Exciting

Vendors Top Projects

TechnologyRoadmap Status Vendor $ Trend $ Spend(40 technologies for each sector)

VendorPerformance Forward

Looking Spending Data

Vulnerability Ratings(4-6 Vendors)

TimelyTopics Rank the

Importance Motivators

& Inhibitors Organizational

Dynamics

One on One Interview Process: Core Intelligence Captured

Repeated Every Six Months

Ongoing Flow of Intelligence Delivered in Six Month Waves

Technology Heat Index™: where are IT budgets going

Vendor Profiles™: Spending, Ratings and Buzz – all from their clients

Forward Looking Spending Changes for the Competitive Landscape

End User Ratings on thirteen (13) different dimensions

Vendor Vulnerability: Who is likely to lose clients and to whom?

Detailed Narrative Commentary: Context, the “whys” behind the answers.

Technology Vendor Annual Investment Options

Deliverables Reference Reports• Industry Profile• Technology Roadmap• Vendor Performance Data• Narratives

Market Dynamics Reports Vendor Profiles TIP Insight Reports Real Time Updates Unlimited Inquiry Access to Research Team Client Presentation Upon Study Completion

TIP’s Methodology Is Superior to Surveys & Analyst Firms

Why TheInfoPro?

The Source: The world’s largest buyers/users of Information Technology (IT)

The Style: No Spin or bias. TIP is the “voice of the customer”.

The Content: Real data based on a fine tuned research process

The Intellectual Property: TIP’s Technology Heat Index™, Vendor Performance Data and Narrative Commentary have become the standard.

The Frequency: By studying a market in six month intervals, or “waves”, TIP captures unmatched historical dating back to 2002.

The TIPNetwork: Intelligence captured via TIP’s relationships with customers, suppliers and investors.

The Team: A combination of people with extensive experience in the IT industry working closely with senior IT decision makers, leadership teams at vendors and the world’s most successful investors.

This presentation contains confidential information which is the property of TheInfoPro, a division of The 451 Group, and is given to the recipient pursuant to a confidential relationship between the recipient and TheInfoPro, LLC. Such information shall not be copied, disclosed

to others, or used for any purpose other than that for which is given, without the written permission of TheInfoPro, LLC.TheInfoPro™ and logo are registered trademarks and property of TheInfoPro, LLC, a division of The 451 Group.

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