Phil Sargeant is research vice president for the Data Center, Technology & Service Provider Research. His primary research specialty is data center storage hardware, with the secondary focus being data center server hardware. Mr. Sargeant monitors and comments on the major storage hardware technologies and major storage vendors. He also monitors the major server vendors, server technologies and major operating platforms including z/OS, Solaris, HP-UX, AIX, Linux and Microsoft Windows. Mr. Sargeant spends a good deal of time liaising with vendors and end users, providing advice and guidance about the storage market, including storage consolidation, virtualization and the technologies associated with real-time infrastructure.