THE CLOUD RULER
The first to understand the importance of hybrid cloud back in 2015, cloud provider NetApp maintains leadership in the field
Founded in 1992 as a data storage supplier, NetApp has undergone tremendous business transformations from creating a cloud software unit to forming partnerships with leading cloud companies. Today, it is a leader in hybrid cloud data services, helping customers build and manage a data fabric so that they can modernize their IT infrastructure, gain speed and agility, and fuel data-driven innovation. NetApp achieved all these by simplifying the integration and orchestration of data services across the choice of clouds – which are crucial for any business looking to transform digitally.
NetApp offers the AI architecture ONTAP, developed with NVIDIA, which helps customers deploy deep learning environments on any cloud. In the DevOps space, it has Trident, the industry’s first open-source dynamic storage provisioner for Kubernetes, which helps accelerate app development.
Its human-computer interaction is a disaggregated hybrid cloud infrastructure that allows companies to independently scale storage and compute, adapting to workloads and thus reducing costs.
“Last year, with the launch of NetApp Keystone, we reinvented the customer experience for hybrid multi-cloud, explains Mr. Sanjay Rohatgi, APAC Senior Vice President and General Manager. “It addresses IT complexities by offering IT teams greater choice, flexibility, and freedom to run and pay for their data services however they want. This makes it significantly simpler for IT leaders to modernize, monitor, and manage the entirety of their infrastructure.”
NetApp products and solutions target companies pursuing a data-driven digital transformation to accelerate business outcomes. “We help many global brands manage their data, such as Ducati, DreamWorks, and WuXi NextCODE, as well as Asian household names Geelong Cats (Australia), Shanghai PPDAI (China), Toei Animation (Japan), and Tata Consultancy Services (India).”
Agnostic on whether customers buy on-premises or public cloud infrastructure from them, NetApp gives customers the freedom to locate workloads based on requirements. “We deliver the same data management experience across any cloud our customers might choose,” adds Mr. Rohatgi.
A Fortune 500 company since 2012, NetApp has retained its position through constant evolvement. “In the last two years, we have dramatically overhauled our offerings, capabilities, and strengths better to support our customers with their digital transformation efforts,” Mr. Rohatgi says.
“We were the first established cloud provider to understand the importance of the evolution of hybrid cloud back in 2015, and have maintained leadership in this area.” The world’s largest cloud companies partner with NetApp, including Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and AWS. As a result, its successful cloud business, including cloud services and private cloud, contributes a significant portion to the company’s revenue and growth.
It has made significant investments to consistently provide superior customer experience across the entire storage life cycle. “We introduced a Cloud Customer Group that specifically focuses on understanding how our customers want and need to leverage cloud-based services. This way, we can continue to innovate and maintain our hybrid multi-cloud leadership.”
Headquartered in the United States, NetApp runs offices worldwide to be closer to its customers. “It’s important to continually talk to them to find out what problems they have and then propose ideas to solve them. Data fabric was the result of us talking to some customers who wanted to have all that goodness that we gave them in the data center, in the cloud.”