Midrange storage arrays just might be the storage hardware category offering consumers the greatest breadth of choice. This year's Diogenes Labs--Storage magazine Quality Award for midrange arrays asked Storage readers to relate their experiences using 15 different midrange product lines, ranging from Apple Computer Inc. to Xiotech Corp. Our readers provided a total of 474 evaluations of these systems, with nine products garnering enough responses to be included as award finalists. Readers rated these systems in five different categories--sales-force competence, product features, initial product quality, product reliability and technical support--using a 1.0-8.0 scale, where 8.0 is the most favorable score.

Our survey is designed to allow smaller vendors to compete on an equal footing with larger, more established vendors. We're always curious to find out if any emerging vendor is developing a "cult" following that might indicate a "best-in-class" opportunity for IT buyers. If the results of our 2006 survey are any indication, storage groups may want to take a look at EqualLogic Inc.'s PS Series arrays, which topped a wide field of products and eclipsed last year's winner Sun Microsystems Inc./StorageTek FlexLine. EqualLogic's win is especially noteworthy because it wasn't in last year's survey.