EMC sells Documentum to private equity – what would it look like 1 year later?

With the announcement last April that EMC is looking to sell Documentum, we have always predicted that the likely buyer would be private equity.   As followers of EMC/Documentum know, EMC sold off Synchplicity to private equity approximately one year ago.  For this blog post, we will compare Gartner’s thoughts on Syncplicity in 2015 (when the sale was just announced) with Gartner’s thoughts in 2016 to draw parallels to a possible Documentum sale.

Gartner 2015 – Magic Quadrant for Enterprise File Synchronization and Sharing

Full report is available here.

Back in 2015, Syncplicity was viewed as a leader with the best completeness of vision as well as the second highest ability to execute (to Citrix).  Overall – Gartner thought:

Syncplicity is a destination EFSS product with security and management capabilities. Its delivery model is hybrid, since storage can be on-premises or off-premises in the cloud, using a policy-driven hybrid cloud (StorageVaults). Syncplicity integrates with EMC’s storage products Isilon, Atmos, ViPR and VNX; with third-party storage arrays that support the Network File System (NFS); and with EMC Documentum.

Syncplicity is a viable option for organizations looking for a hybrid EFSS architecture to provide secure mobile access to a combination of on-premises and cloud repositories, especially if EMC storage or content management products are present. Organizations that need “any folder” synchronization should make this option a priority.

Specific strengths from Gartner included:

• EMC continues to invest heavily in its UI design for native mobile apps and desktop clients. Content editing and annotations for Microsoft Office documents are supported via embedded functions in the mobile applications.

• EMC has a strong go-to-market strategy and presence in the market, with more than 10,000 salespeople and 14,000 channels.

• EMC offers a “customer success program” at no additional cost to help customers deploy EFSS on IT’s and users’ sides.

Cautions included

• EMC sold a majority stake in Syncplicity to Skyview Capital, a private equity firm, in July 2015. The effects of this change on sales and support (positive or negative) could not be assessed before publication. Gartner believes this event may cause some uncertainty in the market.

Gartner 2016 – Magic Quadrant for Enterprise File Synchronization and Sharing

Full 2016 Report is available via DropBox

After the EMC Sale, Gartner moved Syncplicity from the Leader Quadrant to the Visionary Quadrant moving behind many vendors in ability to execute evaluation as well as behind Box in the completeness of vision.

While much of the overview remained unchanged, Gartner did not mention EMC as a strength and added the following cautions:

• Reference customers reported occasional challenges in integrating Syncplicity’s offering with corporate IT systems and third-party products. Syncplicity’s ecosystem of partners is limited, compared with some competitors.

• Syncplicity is a small, private company with limited resources, compared with the big IT and cloud vendors in this market. It is competing with larger and more mature players in a consolidating and commoditizing market.

Summary

Without EMC’s backing, Syncplicity has struggled over the last year, at least in the eyes of Gartner.  As we wait patiently for a Documentum sale, we would predict a similar result if the eventual Documentum buyer is private equity.