Published Reports

The majority of our work is internal reports, confidential to our clients, such as competitive matrices and product roadmap validation for development teams, competitive analysis reports and market research for marketing teams, and competitive sales guides and battlecards for sales teams.

Therefore, we are only able to publish a small sampling of our work product with the public reports below.

Managing Complexity in the x86 Data Center: The User Experience

The proliferation of servers (both physical and virtual), storage, and network topologies makes managing the plethora of devices in even a small business network critical to the success of the organizations using the technology. For smaller organizations, choosing the right management platforms is becoming an important criterion for selecting between otherwise similar hardware. Edison analysts set out to discover which management platform provided the best user experience and therefore could deliver the most efficient management solution. We brought in groups of testers to compare Dell Management Console, HP Systems Insight Manager, and IBM Systems Director to a lab environment at Edison’s New York City facility.
To see what the tests revealed, read the PDF

Energy Efficiency Comparison Study: IBM BladeCenter vs. HP BladeSystem

Edison developed tests to measure and compare the actual power (energy) consumption of IBM BladeCenter and HP BladeSystem platform configurations, delivering a fresh perspective on a similar comparison study performed a couple years ago. These results show that, in designing a data center for blade servers, the choice of an IBM BladeCenter platform can yield significant operating expense savings while delivering the compute performance required by an organization's applications.
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Enhanced Branch Office Productivity and WAN Bandwidth Savings with Microsoft BranchCache^TM

With the release of Windows 7, Microsoft has delivered BranchCache, a solution to address the remote office challenge. Working in conjunction with Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 7 clients with BranchCache capability enabled can expect to see significant performance improvements when downloading files from the central office. Microsoft commissioned Edison to do a WAN bandwidth savings study for BranchCache. Edison analysts created a set of use case scenarios and ran comparison tests over a range of typical WAN network types. This Edison white paper discusses the results, which showed savings that, in many cases, exceeded our expectations.
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The Business Value of HP StorageWorks EVA Storage Virtualization

The growth in data storage requirements continues to impact organizations of all sizes. For those organizations whose size, budgets, or technical requirements fit into what is called the midrange, the comparative business value of solution choice depends upon several factors. In addition to acquisition costs, these factors include administrative costs, scalability, reliability, capacity, and the ability to meet constantly changing business and technology needs through flexibility and versatility. This Edison Group white paper examines how storage virtualization as provided by HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Arrays (EVA) can help organizations meet these challenges.
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Operational TCO Comparison: Microsoft Windows Server 2008 File Services vs. Dedicated Storage System Vendors

While new database applications and other server workloads continue to be introduced, file services remains one of the premier drivers of Windows Server installations. This white paper provides informed comparisons between Windows Server 2008 file services and competing file service offerings from various storage manufacturers. Readers will learn how Windows Server 2008 File Services can provide a cost effective alternative to other file storage solutions.
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Advancements in Power Efficiency with the IBM System x3650 & x3550 M2 Servers

Organizations needing new servers must meet apparently conflicting demands for greater performance and scalability versus the need to lower power consumption. This Edison white paper describes the latest advancements in power efficiency offered by the new IBM System x3550 and x3650 servers. It provides readers with an appreciation of how IBM engineers have built servers that provide significant power and performance advantages over older server designs that can lead to significant energy use savings.
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iDataPlex and The Case for High-Density Server Infrastructures

The modern data center is under tremendous pressure to add more computing power while reducing the use of electrical power. This Edison white paper enables data center owners to understand the need for high density data center computer infrastructures and how IBM System x iDataPlex can meet those needs. It provides an overview of the issues data center owners face and of the evolution server technologies to address those issues. It also provides an in-depth review of the iDataPlex architecture and IBM's approach for delivering mass customized data center solutions.
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The Better Choice: HP StorageWorks EVA and HP BladeSystem

Evaluating the Facilitation of EVA vs. EMC CLARiiON CX-4 in the Virtual Server Environment. Server virtualization with VMware has become a mission critical tool in data center consolidation and cost savings efforts. Edison Group analysts demonstrate that the multi-level integration and superior ease of use offered by the combination of HP BladeSystem C-Class Servers, the HP Insight Control Suite and HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Arrays with HP EVA Command View software provide a better solution for most organizations.
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Oracle’s Maximum Availability Architecture on the IBM System z

The IBM DB2 data server platform running on IBM System z has long been established as the platform of choice for enterprise IT data centers serious about availability, performance, security, manageability, and security. However, innovations in technology — particularly in areas of open standards, server virtualization, and high-availability grid computing — today offer viable options. These options deliver matching attributes or better while enabling organizations to more closely align business purposes, strategies, and plans with the technology underpinning them in ways not possible with proprietary systems. Oracle has evolved such architectural approaches that combine the inherent strengths of the System z platform with the bullet-proof, ultra-high availability of Oracle’s platform and Oracle’s Maximum Availability Architecture (MAA) incorporating Linux servers running as Virtual Machines on an on-demand grid computing environment.
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Comparative Management Cost Survey: Workload Weighting for Mid-range Storage Array Administrators

Edison surveyed storage administrators in order to understand how they spend their work day and develop a set of weighting factors that can be used in the analysis of administrator workloads in costs of ownership studies. This white paper describes the survey methodology, the survey results and the analysis leading to the creation of weighting factors. To illustrate their value the weighting factors were then applied to the results of the "HP EVA TCO: HP vs. EMC vs. NetApp" study (listed below on this page) showing that the total workday savings on an organization utilizing HP EVA arrays can be 35 percent and when compared to NetApp the savings would be 50 percent.
See the PDF

HP EVA4400 Challenge

Edison worked with HP to create The EVA4400 Challenge, a testing environment between their new EVA4400 Array and EMC's CLARiiON CX3-10. HP invited five IT professionals, who had never used either storage array, to run both products through test routines of typical IT staff duties, in order to determine the ease-of-use, manageability, and time savings of each product.
To see how HP won hands down:
Review the report on HP's web site.
Watch the video
See the PDF

IBM BladeCenter Power Efficiency Study

Edison analysts compared the power utilization of blade server systems from HP and IBM and found that the IBM BladeCenter H system was 10% more efficient than a similarly configured HP BladeSystem C7000. Extrapolated over 224 servers and with an energy cost of 9.4 cents per kilowatt-hour, our results showed that IBM blades can save customers up to $12,000 per year.
See our report on IBM's web site and watch the video from Edison CEO Dan Spiner
See the PDF

Oracle Linux Support White Paper

In an Open Source environment, one of the key revenue opportunities is from support. This report was developed to assist enterprise customers in making the best possible choice for their Linux support. The report draws a close comparison between Red Hat Linux support versus the Oracle Unbreakable Linux support program, which comes out as the winner and as the best value.
See our report on Oracle's web site.
See the PDF

HP EVA TCO: HP vs. EMC vs. NetApp

For a storage management study, Edison performed extensive hands-on testing of EMC, NetApp, and HP midrange storage arrays. Edison then performed a total cost of ownership study that showed how products with management tools that are easier to use translates into a lower operating cost. Edison published a TCO report that demonstrates that storage administrator efficiencies can greatly affect ownership costs for SAN arrays in the midmarket.
See the report on HP's web site under November 2008
See the PDF

Oracle 10g vs. DB2 9 Manageability Cost Study

The latest in a series of studies comparing the management capabilities of the top relational database management systems, this edition shows that Oracle Database 10g Release 2 maintains its lower manageability cost advantage over recently released IBM UDB DB2 9.1. After completing a laboratory study of standard RDBMS administrative tasks, measuring for efficiency (time it takes to complete tasks), Edison analysts found that "Oracle Database 10g Release 2 can provide organizations using the product with 38% annual administration-related time savings."
See the report on Oracle's web site.
See the PDF

Intel Virtualization TCO Study - "Business Value in Virtualization"

Edison performed a total cost of ownership analysis that demonstrates the business value of selecting top-end Intel Xeon processors for servers in the datacenter. The analysis was based upon the benchmarks established in Edison's previous research paper, Optimizing Virtualized Datacenters
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Oracle 10gR2 vs. SQL Server 2005 Manageability Cost Study

In 2004, Edison developed a metric and methodology for evaluating the manageability of enterprise database management systems. In the last four years, Edison has published a series of studies comparing products from Oracle, Microsoft, and IBM. This study compares the latest releases from Oracle - Oracle Database 10g R2 and Microsoft - Microsoft SQL Server 2005.
Read our report on Oracle's web site
See the PDF

Symantec vs. Veritas: Break the Bundle

This "Break the Bundle" white paper provides an overview of the practice of selling technology in bundled solutions, and outlines the disadvantages of this practice to the technology buyer. The paper also discusses the financial and operational benefits to technology customers through the use of itemized solutions proposals, and provides strategies and tactics about how to succeed in getting a technology vendor to submit an itemized offering.
See the PDF

Microsoft Windows Server NetBench Performance Benchmarking

Microsoft Windows Server White Paper: When CIFS Performance Matters Edison published a white paper entitled, "When CIFS Performance Matters" for IT Professionals, CxOs, and purchasing managers who are considering network storage solutions and who wish to understand the value of various vendor-reported performance characteristics.
See the PDF
See the accompanying lab report
See our report on Microsoft's web site

Intel Virtualization Benchmark White Paper - "Optimizing Virtual Data Centers"

In a new emerging market, an innovative vendor needs to educate the consumer on the advantages of using the new technology. This paper is based on the results from hands-on testing that show the advantages (business benefits) of implementing this technology. Edison created a set of realistic workload benchmarks that demonstrate the scalability of Intel Xeon processors when used in virtualized data centers.
See the PDF

Edison Puts Leading Middleware Application Servers Through Their Paces

Edison conducted a comparison study of four middleware application server platforms: WebSphere, WebLogic, JBoss, and .NET. The benchmark was intended to simulate an ordinary banking application scenario supporting combinations of normal activities rather than to test maximum throughput. Its design was based on the tiered MVC (Model-View-Controller) pattern considered standard for a user-interfacing application. The results show WebSphere outperforming the other leading servers. The report includes full results and benchmark details.
See the PDF

HP IT Security Solutions for Government

Edison performed research and published a white paper covering the technical and legislative requirements imposed on the architecture and functionality of IT infrastructure within government organizations. The paper illustrates how HP addresses these security issues with innovative security strategies and Continuity of Operations.
See our report on HP's website.
See the PDF

Oracle Migrating from Teradata to Oracle Case Studies

Edison performed a study that briefly enumerates the multiple advantages an Oracle platform has over Teradata, and describes how three actual businesses have seized these advantages by migrating from Teradata to Oracle.
See our report on Oracle's web site under Analysts
See the PDF

Oracle DBI vs. SAP BW White Paper

In this white paper, Edison examines the key differences between Oracle Daily Business Intelligence (DBI) and SAP BW, and explores how they impact the total cost of ownership (TCO) and the total benefit of ownership (TBO). We reviewed various scenarios and looked at the impact of third-party or complementary BI technologies. We also recommended key questions to ask, both of your own organization and of external parties, when evaluating a major ERP investment.
See our report on Oracle's web site.
See the PDF

CA Intelligent Storage Management White Paper

Edison analysts developed a white paper designed to provide information about the growing challenges of managing data storage in the modern enterprise. The paper describes the capabilities and benefits of today’s modern data storage management solutions, specifically CA's intelligent storage management solutions.
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Sun Solaris Container Technology vs. IBM Logical Partitions and HP Virtual Partitions

Edison performed a comparative study of virtual server technologies from the three leading UNIX vendors. Edison set up a laboratory environment for testing and analyzing the features, functional richness, manageability, and flexibility of Sun's new Solaris Container virtual sever technology against HP and IBM's respective virtual server technologies (HP “vPars” and IBM “LPARs”). The study results showed that Sun’s Solaris Containers technology does provide a more flexible and scalable virtual server environment than those provided by competitive technologies.
See our report on Sun's web site.
See the PDF

IBM Scalable x64 Server Advantage White Paper

This white paper is for IT decision makers looking for “plain talk” or situational examples involving server performance to help them determine how an 8-processor varies from a 4-processor—and what benefits it will provide them in the long run. The paper focuses on IBM’s xSeries 460, which offers an expandable 64-bit x86 (x64) processing platform that can “scale” to maximize the performance enhancements of the software.
See the PDF

Identity Access Management Market Overview Report

Edison analysts have been covering the Identity and Access Management platforms industry for several years, producing reports for many of the vendors on a variety of topics. This Business Strategy Report is a distillation of what we've learned and provides readers with an understanding of the primary issues involved in Identity and Access Management and an appreciation of the criteria for selecting the right solution for your organization.
See the PDF