NetApp Enters a New Era

This one is going to be quick because I am on the road again and the time zone (plus the bars) are killing me.  I could have lied and said I was really too busy to blog, but what would be the benefit in doing that?

NetApp held its Analyst Day on Tuesday outlining its financial targets for Wall Street and detailing the reasons why customers will look to them for storage and data management solutions.  I am at said event thus the traveling excuse.  My very quick summation after speaking with NetApp executives, investors and customers over the last 24 hours:

• NetApp unveiled a new brand, logo and company name.  Kudos to their team for pulling this off while growing at roughly 20% per year.  The 20% number is significant because it proves NetApp didn't get distracted from its products or customers while doing some necessary marketing research.  Customers see the new logo and tag line but it is hard to appreciate what this takes from an investment and manpower standpoint.  The only thing they see is products that continue to work.
• I met a customer who took 3000+ physical servers to near 200 with VMware and NetApp.  After hearing the reasons why the customer made these two vendor selections (versus competitors' offerings), it is hard to argue why these two companies won't have success as partners and as separate entities going forward.
• It appears that NetApp is preparing an executive management transition as Tom Georgens keeps getting more responsibility - this time being named to NetApp's board.  Customers will appreciate Tom's candor and operations prowess as it should translate into even better product quality and faster innovation / development cycles.
• The one thing I see NetApp missing is (more) software that enables customers to put additional data into their own storage.  EMC has Legato, IBM has Content Manager and FileNet, HP has IAP and Data Protector.  NetApp has Symantec and Commvault - two very good 'partners.'  But I bet I could find a few folks who would love to get backup and archive software from NetApp.  Call me crazy but somehow there are benefits when customers deal with fewer vendors.