Hitachi/HDS and its partners — HP and Sun — are experiencing elongated selling cycles as users attempt to sort out the benefits of the TagmaStore's virtualization features. Only Dell, EMC, Network Appliance and StorageTek came through with results that mirrored the traditional fourth-quarter surge." RAID vendors are also facing competition from server vendors, who are increasingly integrating host-based RAID technology into their base offerings. Advancements in technology, the health of the global economy and the expanded use of storage management best practice methodologies are among the factors that will influence the 2005 storage market, Cox said. Other wild cards include an anticipated shortage of enterprise-class disk drives, whether HP can regain its momentum in the disk array market, and IBM's and HDS's ability to deliver on their commitments. HP's anticipated EVA and MSA refresh will likely push revenue into the second half of 2005, Cox wrote.