Roger Cox, Storage Research VP, Gartner, Passed Away

By Ben Woo, currently CEO of Neuralytix, his former position being in product marketing at AWS Storage Services, AWS, located in San Francisco Bay Area, CA, and previously director, product marketing, competitive intelligence at Pure Storage, after being analyst at Neuralytix from 2012 to 2017, program VP, WW storage systems and big data at IDC from 2007 to 2012, and formerly working at NetApp as senior account manager and at MTI Technology as director of major accounts

Last week, the storage industry lost a tour de force – Roger W. Cox, research VP at Gartner. Roger worked at Gartner for 22 years and is singularly the industry analyst whom I admire the most.

He spent a big part of his professional career in the storage industry, most of which at Gartner. His research and opinions were respected by all. In some ways, I consider him the “godfather” storage analysts and research. His presence at any event validated the importance of the event. At many conferences, there are usually events dedicated to industry analysts only. Invariably, he would be the last to ask a question – and not just any question, but a profound, inspiring, and challenging question of the speaker. After his question, almost as a tradition, it indicated that the session was over, and that the speaker should provide closing remarks. Such was the presence and influence of Roger Cox.

His uniqueness is that he was never condescending or dismissive of opposing opinion. He always respected the other person’s arguments and give consideration to them. Although one better make sure that the facts are true and arguments defensible, because his knowledge, experience, and ability to debate was unmatchable. And apart from all that, Roger was funny.

Roger and I rarely saw eye-to-eye. He worked at Gartner. I worked at IDC. Almost by definition, we were supposed to be corporate enemies. However, we were anything but enemies. We were good friends. When I started my independent industry analyst firm, he shared his experience, knowledge, (and of course) his opinions with (and of) me. He did nothing but encourage me and when critique was warranted, he was direct, but always honest and sincere.

I believe I speak for the entire storage industry when I say that we have lost one of the greatest influencers of our industry. I think everyone in the storage industry will no doubt always have in the back of their minds – “What would Roger say about this?“

Our industry mourns the loss of a legend. I have lost a friend and a mentor. However, we celebrate his legacy, his friendship, his research, and the impact he made to our industry. We miss you Roger. May you rest in peace.

Bio:
Roger Cox spent 22 years at Gartner. He was most recently a part of the Tech Product Manager research team. His focus encompasses enterprise storage systems, including hybrid arrays and AFAs, SDS, integrated infrastructures, HCI systems, storage technology, and market views.

During his career with Gartner, he has worked with the established and emerging storage companies, assisting them to develop winning product and go-to-market strategies, as well as compelling product positioning and messaging strategies. In addition to handling hundreds of inquiries annually from end-users, investment and vendor clients, he is responsible for helping to develop credible vendor market share and forecast reports for the external controller-based storage and integrated system markets.

He is the lead author for many Gartner-branded research documents, including SWOT reports for EMC, NetApp, Pure Storage and IBM, as well Competitive Landscape reports for the AFA and SSD markets. He is also the co-author for the Magic Quadrant for Primary Storage; Critical Capabilities for Solid-State Arrays; Critical Capabilities for Hybrid storage Arrays; and, Dell Technologies, HPE and IBM Vendor Rating research notes.

Before joining Gartner, he worked from 1994 to 1998 for Adaptec, where he was responsible for WW RAID product marketing. Before that, he co-founded Integra Technologies to develop RAID storage management software, and previously president of Contel Business Systems.

He earned a B.S. (Hons.), Economics, Business Administration, Oglethorpe University of Atlanta, GA.