NetApp: UK business is thriving on back of downturn

Vendor claims its UK business has grown as customers - particularly in the public sector - look for more efficient technology

NetApp has hailed its UK business as the "biggest market share taker in the industry", claiming that the country's economic troubles have helped bolster its growth.

Speaking at its Partners and Pathways Summit in Venice, the vendor's UK managing director Dave Allen said the firm's efficiency-based technology has enjoyed huge traction, sending its market share from about 13 per cent to more than 21 per cent.

Allen told CRN: "In the past four years, NetApp in the UK has fundamentally been the biggest market share taker in our industry... [we have enjoyed] some significant market share change in some of the worst macroeconomic times in – theoretically – the UK's financially recorded history. It's a good sign.

"Economic decline plays to a key part of our value proposition really around the efficiency side of things.

"As money gets tighter, people must be tighter with their ROI research – that has played out well for us. It has demonstrated our ability to compete effectively against others in the industry and plays to our innovation [strength]."

NetApp's UK business is its second-largest in EMEA, and the sixth biggest for the vendor worldwide, with 80 per cent of its UK revenue transacted through the channel.

Allen added that the firm pays close attention to data which shows how efficiently its products are being used by customers to ensure they are getting the best out of them. He said NetApp research shows its de-duplication technology alone has seen estimated cost avoidance across its global customer base of $35bn (£22bn).

NetApp's public sector business has enjoyed its best-ever year in 2012 thanks to a high rate of customer acquisition in the healthcare and local government spaces, added Allen, with its larger non-public sector business also thriving in the legal and financial services verticals.

He said that over the past year, he has been keen to open up the business to smaller accounts, which has been a successful move – winning 500 new clients in the lower-end space.