ESG Lab Poised for Continued Growth, Completes 250th Validation Milestone

Industry veteran Jason Buffington joins the ESG team

Milford, MA - October 11, 2011 - Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), an integrated, full-service IT analyst and business strategy firm, today announced the completion of its 250^th Lab Validation. As the gold standard in independent product validation services, ESG Lab provides in-depth testing and analysis of data center technology products for companies of all types and sizes. An ESG Lab Validation Report offers objective, third-party verification of a product's capabilities and provides insight into why-and how-these capabilities matter to customers.

Among the first ESG Lab validations in 2003 were incubation technologies from then nascent vendors such as Isilon with scale‑out NAS, Data Domain with deduplication, and Asigra with cloud-based backup. "Over the years, ESG has become so much more than a provider of quantitative research and analyst reports. They are a trusted advisor to our business and one of the keys to our success in the early days.  The industry's trust in ESG is why we continue to engage with them to validate our product features and direction," says Asigra Executive VP, Eran Farajun. Today, ESG continues to offer validation services for not only recognized industry giants, but also embryonic companies in new markets including VDI, SSD, big data and OpenFlow networking.

As the demand for independent assessments and guidance continues to grow, ESG is meeting the need by growing its capacity through both strategic partner alliances and additions to the ESG Lab team, including Jason Buffington, most recently from Microsoft. "With over 20 years of industry experience, Jason is a recognized data protection and storage professional and was already known by many of the ESG family. Adding him to not only the ESG Lab team, but the broader ESG expert community, was a perfect fit," says Brian Garrett, Vice President, ESG Lab.

The ESG Lab team is comprised of entrepreneurs and subject-matter experts across not only the storage and data protection spaces, but also virtualization and systems management, with an average of 23 years of industry experience per engineer. Members of the press, technology vendors, and IT professionals are encouraged to learn more about ESG Lab services offerings  at /lab.

About Enterprise Strategy Group

Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) is an integrated, full-service IT analyst and business strategy firm, world-renowned for forward-looking market intelligence, analysis, and consulting services that deliver proven, measurable results. Recognized as one of the world's top 10 analyst firms by offering a unique blend of capabilities-including world-class market research, hands-on technical product testing, and expert consulting methodologies such as the ESG Strategy Lifecycle-ESG is relied upon by IT professionals, technology vendors, institutional investors, and the media for actionable IT and business intelligence.

For more information visit: www.enterprisestrategygroup.com.

Media Inquiries:

Diana Eastty

Enterprise Strategy Group

508-244-4127

diana.eastty@esg-global.com