IDC: A New NetApp on the Rise
Tom Shields
In a what might be an illuminating new report for many customers who thought they knew exactly who NetApp is, IDC notes that we have “undergone a significant and broad-reaching evolution.” According to IDC, NetApp is not only leading the industry with our hybrid cloud integration, we’re also helping customers implement digital transformation in very meaningful ways.
“Established enterprise storage vendors that want to stay in business as the industry transitions to enable digital transformation need to change their business models,” said Eric Burgener, research vice president, Infrastructure Systems, Platforms and Technologies at IDC. “NetApp has been very open about discussing its own evolution as an enterprise vendor, and it is clear how it is changing the company and how it deals with customers to drive improvements in the overall customer experience.”
IDC's Analysis
IDC’s analysis points to NetApp’s ability to help enterprises successfully engage digital transformation for their own organizations. “The ‘new’ NetApp is a very different company than it was just two short years ago, and the company's adjusted direction meshes well with both industry trends and evolving enterprise customer needs,” Burgener wrote. In the report, IDC identified five key areas where NetApp is leading the way.Five Key Areas Where NetApp is Leading the Way
- Hybrid cloud integration: IDC acknowledges that NetApp was the first storage provider to understand the importance of hybrid cloud back in 2015 and that NetApp “has maintained leadership in this area since then.” In addition, NetApp has strong relationships with the three largest hyperscalers (Amazon, Google and Microsoft).
- Storage consumption models: IDC applauded NetApp’s vision to “make the company agnostic as to whether its customers buy on-premises or public cloud-based infrastructure.”
- Customer experience (CX): Despite having industry-leading customer recognition, IDC said NetApp continues to look for ways to improve and “deliver a consistently superior customer experience across its entire customer base.”
- Software-defined infrastructure strategy: IDC explains that “NetApp is more of a software rather than a hardware company.” And that’s a good thing, considering that customers are now “looking for increased deployment flexibility and agility, for easier technology refresh, and for better hybrid cloud integration capabilities.”
- SAN (block-based workloads): IDC noted correctly that NetApp is no longer “just a NAS vendor.” By the end of 2019, “NetApp was one of the fastest-growing ‘SAN vendors’ (by revenue) among the established enterprise IT infrastructure vendors,” IDC said.
IDC also highlights NetApp’s ability to support customers’ AI and cloud-native application development initiatives.
Thank you, IDC, for this recognition.
To our customers—past, present, and future—if you haven’t taken a close look lately, please do. There’s no one more ready or more eager to help you navigate the data complexities of digital transformation. Download the full report here to learn more.
Source: IDC, A New NetApp Is on the Rise, February 2020, Eric Burgener, #US45948920
Tom Shields
Tom leads a global team at NetApp working with industry analysts and influencers to guide and inform NetApp’s transformation from storage to cloud data services leader. He joined NetApp in 2005 after 10 years in various High Performance Computing and Storage product management and marketing roles with SGI and Sun Microsystems. Shields holds bachelor of science and master of business administration degrees from the University of Virginia.
