NetApp sees customers race from competitors with Run to NetApp programme
'Run to NetApp' programme gives financial incentives to partners to move customers from Dell EMC, HPE and IBM
NetApp is seeing around 22 per cent of net new accounts in EMEA come through its 'Run to NetApp' scheme, which offers rewards for partners that bring over flash accounts from EMC, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and IBM.
The programme launched in August 2016 but was initially known as 'Run from EMC' and designed to pinch customers while EMC was going through its integration into Dell.
NetApp has since rebranded the programme and Alfred Manhart, senior EMEA channel director at NetApp, said the scheme is capitalising on increasing consolidation and disruption in the storage market.
Alongside Dell's acquisition of EMC, HPE has snapped up SimpliVity and Nimble Storage over the last six months.
"We started a year ago when it was Run from EMC, so if a customer decides to move from EMC to NetApp we have a programme that is beneficial for the migration services," he said. "The partner gets a financial benefit out of it and next to it they're selling their own services and selling the gear.
"As the competition and marketplace is getting a bit broader we call it Run to NetApp, instead of Run to EMC, and we've included in this phase other competitors."
As part of the programme, partners get a $60,000 reimbursement for deals over $500,000, with smaller reimbursements available for smaller deals (details can be found on the website of distributor Arrow ECS).
The programme is now set to run until April 2018 and Manhart said that NetApp is primed to continue taking market share from competitors, having recently launched its first hyper-converged (HCI) solution.
"These kind of huge mergers - Nimble and SimpliVity with HPE and Dell and EMC - are really positive," he said.
"The reason our flash figures are extraordinary is because the marketplace was so disrupted that we took the advantage, and also from a financial perspective as well. I think it's very positive.
"We have Nutanix and SimpliVity partners in whatever flavour - flash, HCI [for example] - that are trained in [this technology], and I think we have a better product than they do now."
Paul Stringfellow, technical director at NetApp partner Gardner Systems, said the programme is one of a number of NetApp initiatives that have been well received by the channel.
"With anything like that it's nice to have an incentive to make it easier to win business, particularly when it's competitive," he said. "Anything that eases the path of doing business is always welcome in the channel.
"It's another step from NetApp in making sure that they are better at articulating their message and making sure partners understand the data play and where that data fabric message is going. It falls alongside some really good announcements with ONTAP (data management software) and the HCI piece.
"There's lots of positive stuff around NetApp at the moment. Their IDC figures look good and they had a decent last quarter, so all those messages are translating well with the channel."