Net App

By CIO New Zealand staff | Monday, January 11 2010

In September, the company announced an attack on the mid-sized market with a new aggressive pricing strategy.

Global HQ: Sunnyvale, California, US
Website: www.netapp.com
Global leader: Tom Georgens, president and CEO
Local leader: Simon Green, VP and GM, Asia-Pacific
Core activity: Storage and data management
Revenue: $US3.4 billion (2008-09, ended April 24)
Key customers: Suncorp, Air New Zealand, Australia Post, DP World, Karoon Gas, Sensis, Telstra
Employees: 8042

After axing 6 percent of its global workforce in February, NetApp spent the latter part of 2009 expanding and diversifying. The company appointed a new CEO in August. Tom Georgens took over from Dan Warmenhoven, who remains executive chairman. This move was seen as an attempt to restore growth after a tough year, which included the very public loss of a drawn-out bidding war with arch enemy EMC for Data Domain. NetApp is now focused on upgrading its data open network to better promote cloud options for clients.

In September, the company announced an attack on the mid-sized market with a new aggressive pricing strategy.

NetApp also announced a partnership with BMC Software to offer more comprehensive end-to-end server, network, storage and management packages.

Although management has downplayed the possibility, some analysts have suggested NetApp might soon face a takeover bid from a player like Hewlett-Packard or Cisco. Rachael Bolton