Why NetApp is Number 1 for a Storage Researcher!!

You all probably heard by now that NetApp has been selected as the best place to work in America by Fortune Magazine in 2009. This nomination is primarily based on the feedback received from NetApp employees. Now, let me give you my perspective on why I think NetApp is the best company to work for in North America. I work in the Advanced Technology Group at NetApp. Our group is part of the CTO office and it consists primarily of PhD and MSc students from top universities/research labs in the world. My perspective would be relevant for aspiring Masters and PhD graduate students who want an industrial research lab job. So, here are the top reasons why I think NetApp is number 1:

·

Get to meet with real customers on a regular basis: Every ATG member gets numerous opportunities to interact with real customers. This is a great opportunity for us to learn about real customer problems. Thus, it is not difficult to find real customer problems to work on. Trust me, this also makes for great problem motivation when writing papers.

·

Opportunity to work on a diverse range of problems in the systems area: Many students have the misconception that in a purely storage company they will not have a diverse range of problems to work on. We work on problems in areas such as storage management, on how to leverage new hardware technologies, coding theory, new emerging architectures, and data mining algorithms. You name the new emerging technical area like virtualization, Web 2.0, new memory technologies etc, and we are working on those areas.

·

Opportunity to work with product groups and make product impact: Unlike some other research labs, the work you do has a very good chance of ending up in products. Ultimately, there is no greater feeling than seeing your work being used by actual customers. You get guidance and feedback from product group architects on a regular basis. Usually, you solve a problem and build a prototype. Subsequently, the product group leverages your experience and they, in turn, build products or make changes.

·

Support for publishing in top conferences: NetApp employees get an opportunity to publish both in an internal journal and also at top conferences. Our employees are collaborating with many professors from top notch US universities. We also have an excellent summer internship program where we get top students from top universities. NetApp has an excellent publication track record at reputed top conferences like FAST and USENIX.

·

Opportunity to interact with professors and attend university retreats and conferences: NetApp employees get opportunities to attend university retreats and leading conferences. NetApp also hosts an annual University Day where top systems professors from across the world come to NetApp and meet with NetApp employees.

·

ATG labs in multiple locations: We have labs in Boston, Raleigh, Sunnyvale California, and Bangalore India. Thus, people have opportunity to work in a geographic area of their choice.

·

Proactive management and top notch colleagues: Initially, I was very nervous about leaving IBM research labs after working there for many years and moving to NetApp. But believe me, NetApp management is very proactive and pragmatic. They work very hard to make sure that their employees are happy and productive. Lastly, but most importantly, my co-workers are very positive and helpful. The atmosphere is very conducive for stimulating new ideas (a lot of patents are being filed by our team members) and for building complex prototypes.