NetApp, Inc., formerly Network Appliance, Inc., is an American multinational computer storage and data management company headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. It is a member of the NASDAQ-100, and it was ranked on the Fortune 500 list for the first time in 2012. NetApp has more than 12,000 employees in 150+ offices around the world.

 

Today, NetApp is the #1 storage provider to the United States government as well as the #1 storage market leader in Germany. NetApp’s products and solutions are currently powering 96% of FORTUNE 100, and NetApp was the first in the data storage industry to introduce a guarantee to cut customer storage capacity by 50%.

 

History

NetApp was founded in 1992 by David Hitz, James Lau and Michael Malcolm. At the time, its major competitor was Auspex. In 1994, NetApp received venture capital funding from Sequoia Capital. It had its initial public offering in 1995.

 

NetApp thrived in the internet bubble years of the mid 1990s to 2001, during which the company grew to $1 billion in annual revenue. After the bubble burst, NetApp's revenues quickly declined to $800 million in its fiscal year 2002. Since then, the company's revenues have steadily climbed.

 

On August 19, 2009, Dan Warmenhoven stepped down as CEO and was replaced by Tom Georgens.

 

Major acquisitions

• 1997 - Internet Middleware (IMC): IMC's web proxy caching software became the NetCache product line (which was resold in 2006).

 

• 2004 - Spinnaker Networks: The technology Spinnaker brought to NetApp was integrated into Data ONTAP GX and first released in 2006.

 

• 2005 - Alacritus: The tape virtualization technology Alacritus brought to NetApp was integrated into the NetApp NearStore Virtual Tape Library (VTL) product line, introduced in 2006.

 

• 2005 - Decru: Storage security systems and key management.

 

• 2006 - Topio: Software that helped replicate, recover, and protect data over any distance regardless of the underlying server or storage infrastructure. This technology became known as ReplicatorX, and has since been abandoned.

 

• 2008 - Onaro: Storage service management software (SANscreen) which helps customers manage storage more efficiently with guaranteed service levels for availability and performance.

 

• 2010 - Bycast: StorageGRID object based storage.

 

• 2011 - Akorri: Cross-domain analysis and advanced analytics to help customers manage, optimize, and plan performance and utilization across their data center infrastructure.

 

• 2011 - ESG(LSI): Purchased the Engenio® external storage systems business of LSI Corporation (NYSE: LSI), a publicly held company headquartered in Milpitas, California, in an all-cash transaction for $480 million.

 

• 2012 - Cache IQ: announced during the 2nd quarter of 2012-13.

 

• 2013 - ionGrid: announced during the 3rd quarter results of 2012-13.

 

Products and services

Software Products

NetApp makes the Data ONTAP 8 operating system ("OS") and the Data ONTAP Edge OS. These operating systems eliminate planned downtime with nondisruptive operations and scale across multiple protocols using the same management tools and feature set. The Data ONTAP OS also protects against double disk failures. NetApp’s filers use the proprietary Data ONTAP storage operating system.

 

Protection Software

MetroCluster – The MetroCluster solution combines array-based clustering with synchronous mirroring to deliver continuous availability and zero data loss in such environments as a single data center, a campus, and a metropolitan area. As an independent solution, MetroCluster is able to transparently recover from failures so mission-critical applications continue uninterrupted. It also eliminates repetitive change management activities to reduce the risk of human error and administrative overhead.

 

Open Systems SnapVault – The NetApp Open Systems SnapVault-solution is designed to safeguard open storage platforms, and it leverages the block-level incremental backup technology found in SnapVault to protect Windows, Linux, UNIX, Microsoft SQL Server, and VMware systems running on mixed storage. Furthermore, NetApp Open Systems SnapVault has been proven especially suitable for centralized backup for remote offices and servers.

 

SnapRestore - SnapRestore software uses stored Snapshot backups to recover entire file systems or data volumes in seconds, regardless of capacity or number of files.

 

SnapLock Compliance and SnapLock Enterprise Software – SnapLock-software aids in complying with records retention regulations that require some companies to archive e-mails, documents, audit information, and other data in an unalterable state for years.

 

SnapMirror Data Replication - NetApp SnapMirror products are data replication solutions that provide disaster recovery protection for business-critical data. SnapMirror data replication reduces network bandwidth utilization up to 70% with built-in network compression as well as provides a 50% reduction in management overhead.

 

SnapProtect Management Software – NetApp SnapProtect Management Software combines high-speed snapshot copies and replication with tape to significantly reduce the risk of downtime and data loss. SnapProtect Management Software is designed to build a single backup and recovery solution for companies that spans traditional and shared IT infrastructures.

 

SnapVault – SnapVault software from NetApp protects data at the block level, copying only the data blocks that have changed since the last backup, vs. entire files. This enables companies to take more frequent backups.

 

Data ONTAP 8 Operating System

The Data ONTAP 8 operating system is a software product designed by NetApp. Data ONTAP 8 has two operating modes: 7-Mode and Cluster-Mode.

 

Data ONTAP 8 working in 7-Mode extends the value of the Data ONTAP 7G OS onto a 64-bit platform. A clustered ONTAP configuration enhances NetApp’s storage efficiency value by introducing scalability and nondisruptive operations to the user. The Data ONTAP 8 operating system allows companies to scale their infrastructure without scaling their IT organization and allows businesses to manage a much larger storage environment with existing IT staff.

 

With Cluster-Mode, two or more controllers (or nodes) operate as one shared resource pool (or storage cluster). The storage cluster can be expanded, subdivided, and contracted nondisruptively into one or more secure partitions, or a Vserver. A Vserver is a logical storage container that includes allocated storage resources from within the cluster as well as security parameters such as rights and permissions. Logical interfaces allow clients to access data within a Vserver from anywhere in the cluster.

 

Features of Data ONTAP

• Data deduplication

• Data compression

• The FilerView tool

• NetApp Flash Pool

• NetApp FlexShare

• NetApp FlexVol

• RAID-DP technology

• NetApp Snapshot

 

Protection Features

• Zero-overhead, double-parity RAID-DP protection.

• Continuous availability and up to 98% faster data recovery.

• Capability to restore application data and virtual machines in minutes.

• On-access scanning of files to protect against virus attacks.

• Secure retention that meets enterprise storage compliance requirements.

 

Data ONTAP Edge Operating System

The Data ONTAP Edge operating system is a remote office storage solution designed by NetApp that runs in a virtual machine on the VMware vSphere platform. Designed to complement NetApp FAS and V-Series storage, it delivers data management and protection to environments that don’t warrant a dedicated NetApp storage system.

Data ONTAP Edge enables companies to build a data center on a server by using the company’s enterprise server and the VMware vSphere platform. The result is that the remote office can fully participate in the company’s shared IT infrastructure without compromise.

 

NetApp OnCommand Management Software

OnCommand Management Software is a suite of products that are used for management of companies' shared storage infrastructures. NetApp OnCommand Management Software helps companies control, automate, and analyze their shared storage infrastructure. These software products are designed to reduce complexity via a single, unified storage management approach.

 

NetApp OnCommand Unified Manager delivers a unified way to manage physical and virtual storage environments using integrated workflows and policy-driven automation. Unified Manager controls shared IT infrastructures as "pools" of storage using policy-based automation for provisioning and data protection. This enables up to 50% savings in storage expenditures.

 

NetApp OnCommand Insight Balance was named the 2011 Storage Management Tools Gold Winner in Storage magazine's/SearchStorage.com's 2011 ‘Products of the Year’ competition. The win highlights OnCommand Insight Balance’s strong architecture, interface and reporting capabilities.

 

NetApp OnCommand Workflow Automation enables storage administrators to create storage workflows and perform one-click automation to provision NetApp storage for deployments of applications, such as VMware®, Oracle®, Microsoft®, SAP®, Citrix, and others.

 

StorageGRID

NetApp StorageGRID is an object storage software solution designed to manage petabyte-scale globally distributed repositories of data, like: images, video, and records for enterprises and service providers. It supports billions of files or objects and petabytes of capacity in a single global namespace.

 

NetApp StorageGRID provides great scalability by removing the typical constraints of data containers in blocks and files. It enables intelligent data management and secure content retention. It optimizes data placement, metadata management, and efficiency through a global policy engine with built-in security that manages how data is stored, placed, protected, and retrieved.

 

Hardware Products

FAS/V-Series Storage Systems

FAS6200 Series – The FAS6200 series architecture is designed for high performance with 24 cores and 192GB of memory in the FAS6280 system to take full advantage of the 64-bit Data ONTAP 8 operating system. They support up to 4320TB of raw capacity, as many as 1440 disk drives, up to 192GB of memory, and as much as 16TB Total Flash, plus end-to-end high-speed connectivity, including 10GbE and 8Gb FC to hosts and 6Gb SAS on the storage side.

 

FAS3200 Series – The FAS3200 family is the NetApp midrange data storage and management platform. They support up to 2160TB of raw capacity, as many as 720 disk drives, up to 40GB of memory, and as much as 2TB Total Flash.

 

FAS2200 Series – The NetApp FAS2220 and FAS2240 are entry-level systems that start at less than $8,000. They support up to 432TB of raw capacity and as many as 144 disk drives.

 

V-Series – NetApp V-Series open storage controllers enable users to manage storage arrays from multiple storage vendors—including EMC, Fujitsu, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Hitachi Data Systems—in a consistent way and with less effort. V-Series gives native support for SAN and NAS protocols. Scale with V-Series by adding capacity to current storage system or by attaching NetApp disk shelves.

 

Intelligent Caching

Flash Accel – NetApp Flash Accel software combines the server-based flash technology and NetApp intelligent caching to extend VST to the server level. It takes advantage of the data management abilities that are built into all NetApp FAS and V-Series data storage systems, enhancing the use of server flash, improving application responsiveness, and dramatically increasing overall system throughput.

 

Tests have shown that Flash Accel can reduce application and server latency by 90% and increase throughput by 80%. By eliminating the need to store cold data on expensive server flash media, Flash Accel optimizes both cost per IOPS and cost per GB.

 

Flash Cache – NetApp Flash Cache speeds data access through intelligent caching of recently read user data or NetApp metadata. No setup or ongoing administration is needed, and operations can be tuned.

 

Flash Cache works with all NetApp storage protocols (SATA drives, SSDs) and software, enables an:

 

• Increase I/O throughput by up to 75%. 

• Use up to 75% fewer disk drives without compromising performance. 

• Increase e-mail users by up to 67% without adding disk drives. 

 

NetApp Virtual Storage Tier – NetApp Virtual Storage Tier (VST) is a self-managing, data-driven service layer for storage infrastructure. It provides real-time assessment of workload-based priorities and optimizes I/O data requests for cost and performance—without requiring complex data classification.

 

On-demand data promotion is based on actual usage patterns, ensuring immediate response to changing workload demands. NetApp Virtual Storage Tier is fully compatible with both SAN and NAS environments and related data protection and business continuity requirements.

 

NetApp Virtual Storage Tier provides:

• Real-time, data-driven response to the most demanding application workloads.

• Full flash technology integration: both PCIe and solid-state disk (SSD).

• Industry-leading efficiency through data deduplication and thin cloning integration.

 

E-Series Storage Technology

 

The NetApp E5400 Storage System

 

The E5400 Storage System - The NetApp E5400 is a high-performance storage system brings together massive bandwidth performance and extreme density to create a storage system that is suited for data-intensive workloads. The E5400 systems support up-to: 1080TB of raw capacity, 384 disk drives, and 24GB of system memory. The system supports both SAS and SSD drives.

 

The NetApp E2600 Storage System
 

The E2600 Storage System – The NetApp E2600’s multiple enclosure options enable custom configuration that can be tailored for any environment. The E2600 systems support up-to: 576TB of raw capacity, 192 disk drives, and 4GB of system memory.

 

Filers

The line of NetApp filers has served as the company's flagship product from the very beginning. A filer is a type of disk storage device which owns and controls a filesystem, and presents files and directories to hosts over the network. This scheme is sometimes called file storage, as opposed to the block storage which major storage vendors like EMC Corporation and Hitachi Data Systems have traditionally provided.

 

NetApp's filers initially used NFS and CIFS protocols based on standard local area networks (LANs), whereas block storage consolidation required storage area networks (SANs) implemented with the Fibre Channel (FC) protocol. In 2002, in an attempt to increase market share, NetApp added block storage access as well. Today, NetApp systems support it via FC protocol, the iSCSI protocol, and the emerging Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) protocol.

 

The filers use NetApp's proprietary operating system called Data ONTAP which includes code from Berkeley Net/2 BSD Unix and other operating systems. Data ONTAP originally only supported NFS, but CIFS, iSCSI and Fibre Channel (including Fibre Channel over Ethernet) were later added. Today, NetApp provides two variants of Data ONTAP. Data ONTAP 7G and a nearly complete rewrite[33] called Data ONTAP GX, based upon grid technology acquired from Spinnaker Networks. In the near future these software product lines will be merged into one OS - Data ONTAP 8, which will fold Data ONTAP 7G onto the Data ONTAP GX cluster platform.

 

In 2006, NetApp launched a Virtual Tape Library (VTL) product for magnetic tape data storage virtualization.

 

In 2007 NetApp introduced its own deduplication technology: NetApp Dedupe, available for all current models of NetApp filer.

 

Datafort

The Decru Datafort storage encryption device can encrypt NFS, CIFS, iSCSI or Fibre Channel storage. The series also includes a lifetime key management appliance to store and safeguard the encryption keys..

 

Notable clients

NetApp's clients include:

 

• Telstra has standardized on NetApp in a storage-as-a-service model where all their applications access a pool of more than 18PB of shared storage resources.

• Siemens has 18+PB supporting a broad range of activities, including 200,000 Exchange seats.

 

• T-Systems runs its IT-as-a-service offerings on NetApp for major companies like BMW, Heineken, and Shell.

 

• At Oracle, NetApp supports more than 1,600 independent database environments, 500 of them mission critical, for its customers. Oracle broadly standardized on NetApp for its own data center operations as well as its on-demand business.

 

• At Yahoo, more than 100PB and a deep partnership with NetApp help them keep pace with rapid growth of over 300 million e-mail inboxes. This relationship began with the very first inbox on RocketMail and has continued uninterrupted ever since.

 

Some of the world’s biggest and most successful banks rely on NetApp. Southwest Airlines, Catholic Healthcare West, Thomson Reuters, Cisco, Navitaire, CERN, France Telecom, AT&T, Verizon, and many more customers have broadly standardized on NetApp in the heart of their data centers and at the foundation of their business.

 

Principal competitors

NetApp competes in the data-storage devices industry. NetApp ranks second in market capitalization in its industry, behind EMC Corporation and ahead of Seagate Technology, Western Digital, Brocade, Imation, and Quantum. In total revenue, NetApp ranks fourth behind EMC, Seagate, Western Digital, and ahead of Imation, Brocade, Xyratex, and Hutchinson Technology. Note that these lists of competitors do not include companies with significant storage businesses, such as Hewlett Packard, IBM, Hitachi, Dell, Oracle, and Fujitsu. According to a recent (06.2010) IDC report, NetApp is a third company in network storage industry "Big 5's list", behind EMC and IBM, and ahead of HP and Dell, with largest annual revenue growth (47.4%).

 

Corporate culture and work environment

Besides its hardware and software products, NetApp is world renowned for its corporate culture and have won numerous awards, most recently: 5th place in Fortune magazine's '100 Best Companies to Work For 2011', and 3rd place in the '2011 World's Best Multinational Workplace' list by Great Place to Work Institute.

NetApp also has a long history of making Best Places to Work lists around the world. NetApp ranked #1 on Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2009. This is the seventh consecutive year NetApp has earned a spot on the list, placing in the top 50 each time. NetApp also earned top honors in the Best Companies to Work for in Research Triangle Park competition in 2006.

 

Other previous distinctions include making ComputerWorld's Top 100 Places to Work in IT 2005, Best Places to Work in the Greater Bay Area in 2006 by the San Francisco Business Times and the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal, as well as the 8th place on the 2006 list: Best Workplaces in Germany by Capital Magazine. NetApp Canada was ranked #2 by the Great Place to Work Institute on the 75 Best Workplaces list for 2010. 

 

Controversies

Legal dispute with Sun Microsystems

In September 2007 NetApp started proceedings against Sun Microsystems, claiming that the ZFS File System developed by Sun infringed its patents. The following month, Sun announced plans to countersue based on alleged misuse by NetApp of Sun's own patented technology. Several of NetApp's patent claims were rejected on the basis of prior art after re-examination by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

 

On September 9, 2010, NetApp announced an agreement with Oracle Corporation (the new owner of Sun Microsystems) to dismiss the suits.

 

Equipment used by Syrian surveillance

In November 2011 during the 2011 Syrian uprising, NetApp was named as one of several companies whose products were being used in the Syrian government crackdown. The equipment was allegedly sold to the Syrians by an authorized NetApp reseller.