Recently the results of a buyer’s guide were released by a 3^rd tier analyst company known as DCIG. In this guide, CommVault Sympana 9 received top honors. CommVault issued a press release stating this fact earlier this week. In the press release, they found it necessary to call out Veeam specifically (emphasis ours):

According to the report, CommVault received “Best in Class” honors for overall functionality in comparison to other solutions in the market, across seven categories encompassing technology, management, backup, restore, deduplication, media and support. CommVault outranked offerings from legacy software providers, including EMC, Symantec, CA and IBM, as well as point-level virtualization software vendors, such as Veeam.

It is important to note some facts:

1. This “Guide” is created by an analyst firm DCIG and technology advisory firm, SMB Research. But, it is distributed EXCLUSIVELY by CommVault, not DCIG.
2. CommVault also sponsors DCIG web site. DCIG has the following disclaimer on their web site: “DCIG is paid a fee by CommVault® Systems, Inc. in connection with this blog. CommVault® undertakes no obligation to update, correct or modify any statements contained in this blog; these statements represent the views and opinions of DCIG only.” See here: http://sales.dciginc.com/about/index.html. Not once does CommVault disclose this relationship with DCIG, either in the guide or in the press release mentioned above.
3. DCIG is stating that 30 vendors were identified and sent a questionnaire and 24 responses were received. The “Guide” includes Veeam as one of 24 vendors, however, Veeam never responded to the questionnaire! Here is DCIG’s description of the process: “We identified some 30 vendors who provide Virtual Server Backup Software solutions. You will find all of these vendors identified in this Buyer’s Guide. After making contact with all the vendors, we sent out a questionnaire with 130 questions. We ultimately received back 24 responses to our questionnaire.” Again, Veeam did NOT respond. How did DCIG included Veeam’s responses if Veeam didn’t respond? Is DCIG lying about the fact that they received Veeam’s response?
4. DCIG positions this document as “The Insider’s Guide” to Evaluating Virtual Server Backup Software. However the guide is NOT based on:
   1. Customer interviews, or
   2. Technical evaluations in a lab.

   Instead, the “Guide” is based on vendor responses: “After making contact with all the vendors, we sent out a questionnaire with 130 questions. We ultimately received back 24 responses to our questionnaire.” Insider means somebody who is intimately familiar. How can DCIG claim it if they purely compiled some of the vendors responses?

The EXCLUSIVE LICENSEE of the “Guide” is the vendor who is selected as the TOP vendor by the “Guide”.  If the “Guide” was paid by the vendor, can you trust it?