Key takeaways for partners from NetApp's EMEA conference
CRN rounds up the key points from this year's Netpp EMEA partner forum in Seville
NetApp held its annual executive partner conference in Seville this year, attended by over 150 partners from over 30 EMEA countries. We've pick out the key takeaways from the two-day event.
1. Going all in on cloud
NetApp is certainly setting its stall out regarding its position in cloud data management. ‘Lead with cloud' was the theme of the conference and speakers took that literally, continuously emphasising that the future of NetApp is dependent on decoupling its hardware from its software.
Attendees were also reminded time and time again that NetApp is the only storage vendor to have partnerships the three largest public cloud providers - AWS, Google and Amazon.
Though it is not turning its back on its traditional business, it was made very clear to partners that they need to get on board with the vendor's cloud offering. Anthony Lye, VP of cloud business at NetApp, showed the assembled crowd figures which indicated that in a survey of six thousand enterprise respondents, 85 per cent are using or are planning to use a multicloud strategy.
"Business outcomes are far more defineable in a public cloud, whether that workload is running on single cloud or multiple clouds or, as often is the case, integrated from a hybrid cloud structure," he emphasised to the audience.
2. Not forgetting on-prem
Along with claiming to lead the pack in flash storage, NetApp has big plans to become a market leader in hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI), which it believes will drive a significant chunk of its growth in the coming years.
It claims to have already solved the three biggest challenges facing HCI vendors in today's market, namely flexible scaleability, guaranteed quality of service and cloud connectivity.
"Those are the three things that we have already solved and that's how we feel that we are in a different place to other vendors," Matt Watts, director of technology and strategy, told journalists at a press conference.
"They are looking to catch up and achieve some of those things, whereas we have come in with those three things being a fundamental tenet to what we do."
The vendor's shift to cloud, HCI and flash has been welcomed by partners. Kevin Timms, CEO of EACS, said that he wasn't surprised with the direction NetApp has chosen to go in.
"NetApp has been in the doldrums over the last few years but in the last 12 months we've seen them really come back with real clarity about where they are headed which is encouraging to see and looking at ways they can monetise things for the channel," he told CRN.
However, Timms was doubtful of the vendor's HCI capabilities, and felt that NetApp may struggle to carve out its niche in that sector.
"I think they are late to the market with HCI. It's interesting that they held back and were waiting to see how the first generation went, with Nutanix and Simplivity. I think they're going to struggle a little bit," he said.
"I think they're going to be known as a provider of storage technology. At the moment, you can only put their HCI on top of their storage so I think that's going to be a real challenge for them. We tend to look at the components of that. From our standpoint we want the flexibility for how to do that."
Key takeaways for partners from NetApp's EMEA conference
CRN rounds up the key points from this year's Netpp EMEA partner forum in Seville
3. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger
It was clear that NetApp has turned the corner and bid farewell to its recent rocky fortunes in the last few years. Speakers were unafraid to comment on that turbulent time, if only to emphasise the significance of its financial turnaround in the last 12 to 18 months.
During his keynote, Henri Richard, VP of worldwide operations at NetApp, told the assembled crowd that the company's 2018 fiscal year has given it a momentum and confidence to build on for 2019.
The reinvigorated vendor's revenue has steadily grown from a 9.5 per cent decline in 2016 to a seven per cent increase in its most recent financial year. Revenue reached $5.9bn (£5.1bn), representing a seven per cent year-on-year increase from $5.5bn in its fiscal 2017. This reversal in fortune, caused Richard to declare that it is a "new NetApp."
Richard also told partners that there would be an air of "humility" accompanying NetApp's confident stride into its 2019 fiscal year. Time and again, partners were thanked for staying the course with NetApp during the event, with the revitalised company recommitting to them and promising "the best is yet to come."
"A lot of [partners] made the choice to really bet on NetApp, and this is not a responsibility we take lightly, but I feel that we are better positioned than ever to give you return on that investment," Richard told partners.
Opening his keynote, Richard remarked on how the competitive landscape changed drastically in a short amount of time, leading to a few rough years for NetApp.
"The people that were entering as a competitors of [ours], were not there to be a little bit better - they were there to kill you. They were to kill you by fundamentally changing the dynamic of the competitive market. I think that competition has never been so fierce as a result," he said.
The storage vendor's decision to "lead with cloud" and investing in hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) and flash was hailed as the leading cause of its turnaround.
Key takeaways for partners from NetApp's EMEA conference
CRN rounds up the key points from this year's Netpp EMEA partner forum in Seville
4. EMEA takes charge
Claiming that it is currently the market leader in flash storage in EMEA, NetApp is banking on increasing its share by transforming its hardware into flash solutions, according to Alexander Wallner, VP and general manager of EMEA.
EMEA showed the strongest growth for NetApp in the last fiscal year, growing 15 per cent year on year. According to figures shown at the event, it managed to grow its business in most areas, including its "historically strong" enterprise markets in Germany and Austria, which grew ten per cent year on year, along with other areas such as Russia, where it managed to grow 60 per cent year on year. The figures also indicated that NetApp is the market leader in flash storage in the region, including holding a 48 per cent of the market share in Germany and Austria.
In order to keep this pace, the vendor plans to use its traditional hardware output to convert customers to its flash solutions.
"Sixty per cent of our install base still has no flash drive in it. It is controllers and then units that were sold two to four years ago that will be transformed into flash solutions, so this will drive a lot of growth and keep us up to speed in flash," Wallner told CRN regarding the vendor's strategy to main its dominant position.
5. Unwavering channel commitment
With 83 per cent of its EMEA business coming through indirect sales, partners were constantly reminded that NetApp is "100 per cent" a channel-first partner. Despite the announcement that it would be revitalising its OEM business, it insisted that partners had nothing to worry about. When asked if the 17 per cent of business conducted through direct sales was likely to increase, Wallner was adamant that refreshing its OEM business would not conflict with its channel obligations.
"We have old contracts with big global enterprises that create a lot of volume that create this 17 per cent but my commitment is that all enterprise and commercial business that we drive is 100 per cent channel," he told C RN.
"It is a mutual agreement with our channel partners that we just do indirect business. OEM always was and is a big part of our business. If you look at our balance sheet, we already do over $200m OEM business and we are also checking out if certain markets can be served through OEM partnerships, but it should not be perceived as direct competition to the channel."
General consensus garnered from partners at the event indicated that they were not too worried about this news on NetApp's OEM business, with several citing the vendor's reputation as channel-first outweighing any minor concerns they might have.