Showcasing growth and innovation

We’re back from the vibrant city of Lisbon, where we hosted our partners for the Partner and Distribution Summit for the EMEA & LATAM region. Once again, it was a great pleasure to co-host this event with Giovanna Sangiorgi, SVP and General Manager EMEA and LATAM, and Jenni Flinders, SVP Worldwide Partner Organization. With a diverse set of our partners and distributors from more than 40 countries, we spent two productive days listening to their feedback and input to shape our future growth strategy together.

The Partner and Distribution Summit is not just an event, it’s an essential platform for collaboration and growth. This was our opportunity to learn, share, network, and build strong partnerships. The agenda was packed with engaging keynote presentations, interactive workshops, and networking sessions designed to ignite ideas and collaboration.   

The theme of the event focused on growth through the NetApp® intelligent data infrastructure and the evolution of the NetApp Partner Sphere Program. The summit was an opportunity for us to share NetApp’s vision and strategy, as well as to listen to our strategic partners' priorities for building a successful go-to-market strategy. We hosted six partner roundtables to discuss industry trends and market opportunities that we can prioritize for the coming year. 

Welcome to FY26 

Partners are central to NetApp’s strategy, and there's never been a better time to accelerate growth. I am truly inspired by Giovanna Sangiorgi’s vision and Jenni Flinders’s strategy; together, we are indeed stronger. We also heard from Matt Watts (Chief Technology Evangelist) and Keith Norbie (WW Partner CTO), who shared insights on how the NetApp intelligent data infrastructure vision and NetApp solutions can help us capture new markets in flash, block, AI, and cloud. 

We had the pleasure of hosting the annual EMEA & LATAM Partner Awards ceremony to celebrate outstanding performance. Thirteen partners were honored in Lisbon during the awards gala dinner. Please join me in congratulating them:  

• EMEA Partner of the Year: Advanced UniByte Germany 

• SAN Partner of the Year: Softcat UK 

• LATAM Partner of the Year: Vortex Brazil  

• GSI Partner of the Year: Fujitsu Germany 

• Cloud Partner of the Year: MobiLab Germany 

• Enterprise Partner of the Year: Proact Group  

• AI Partner of the Year: Computacenter Germany 

• Innovation Partner of the Year: Cyllene France  

• EMEA & LATAM Distributor of the Year: TD Synnex  

• Regional Distributor of the Year: ICOS Italy 

• Keystone Partner of the Year: Computacenter UK 

• New Customer Acquisition Partner: SVA Germany  

• Growth Partner of the Year: We-Ankor 

Looking back, I feel truly inspired to partner with the most powerful and innovative ecosystem in the industry. Together we are capable of leading change and innovation to deliver customer success and growth.