NetApp - Exposed

Blweet – Google’s Cathartic Day

What’s a blweet?  Well it’s a short blog post that’s longer than a tweet of course!  According to a basic Google / Bing search, I may actually be coining the term, so you read it here first.

NetApp Cloud Presentation @ Avanade TechSummit 2009

Avanade TechSummit 2009 is the premier Avanade technology event of the year, which brings together top technology experts, leaders and industry luminaries to share ideas and knowledge, showcase customer successes and network on a global level.

Freudian Typo

Given everything that’s going on between us and EMC lately, this has to be the most unfortunately timed corporate typo in quite a while.  OTOH - if you take EMC claims at face value, then this kinda proves the point that our FAS & V-Series primary dedupe is superior.

 

Kudos to the good doctor for catching this!

Winning Rounds 1, 2 & 3

By making the opening move and controlling the action, NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) won Round 1 of the battle to acquire Data Domain (NASDAQ:DDUP), even before the fight with EMC (NYSE:EMC) broke out!

With EMC finally surfacing from the shadows, Round 2 was all about Culture Wars, which is a slam dunk for NetApp.

Round 3 just ended, and despite EMC’s stoic posturing against the possibility of U.S. government antitrust review, it seems EMC is wrong again, now losing this latest round to NetApp. Again.

Although the pattern is now clear, if you want to see why this is trending in NetApp’s favor, I recommend some …

Culture Wars

FOX News / Bill O'Reilly fans will instantly recognize this topical metaphor for the sometimes polarized political landscape in America these days.

While it may seem odd to outside Information Technology observers, for those of us in the storage industry this is also amounting to a central theme in the Data Domain acquisition saga between NetApp and EMC.

Geneouses - Hetero and Homo

If you’re involved in the storage industry, you may be wondering which is more newsworthy of late.  Miss California, Bruno, or the NetApp-EMC tussle over Data Domain?

 

Regarding the latter, one of the most abused aspects of the discussion concerns NetApp’s track record regarding corporate acquisitions.  Biased rhetoric about selective transactions hardly paints a clear or accurate picture.  For proper perspective, it’s important to understand how NetApp’s growth plans drive our resulting acquisition strategy.

It's always calmest … in the eye of the storm

NetApp’s proposed acquisition of Data Domain a few weeks ago has created a storm flurry of activity by our competitors – as well as on various industry, financial and vendor web sites.  Much like a hurricane, the further you are from the center of the storm, the more damage you will suffer.  Unless of course you are merely an outside observer completely beyond the reach or consequences of the storm.

Notably, those organizations just outside the eye of this storm run a significant risk of injuries and casualties.

FY09 – It’s not how you start

It’s how you finish of course!  NetApp is expected to announce our Q4 earnings after the NASDAQ market closes tomorrow May 20th, closing out our fiscal year 2009.

With the worst of the recession occurring smack dab in the middle of our FY09, this has been both a challenging and educational year for us.  As a result, during FY10 the NetApp Office of the CTO predicts customer purchasing trends will begin to shift en masse from products to Cloud Services, where Storage Efficiency will determine Cloud Storage Providers’ ultimate success or failure!

Among other accomplishments, NetApp executives will update the financial analysts on our dedupe market leadership and what we expect during the next 11 months throughout our FY10.

This promises to be a very special call, so I highly recommend all those interested in NetApp for whatever purpose - listen in!