NetApp CMO: ‘We Aren’t The Same Company We Were Three Years Ago’

NetApp kicked off Insight 2019 under pressure from Wall Street: The hybrid cloud data services company saw its stock plunge 13 percent in August after the company warned that its earnings and revenue would miss projections. Flash forward to October and partners tell CRN that NetApp’s true value goes beyond the numbers.

[Related: Top Moments From NetApp Insight 2019]

“Those are facts and it’s part of business cycles. Things happen. What’s missing from that almost two-dimensional view is the fact that NetApp has been innovating at a rate and pace that they’ve never done before and it’s just continuing to increase,” said John Woodall, VP of Engineering at IAS, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based solution provider. “They are the best kept secret in tech. They are hiding in plain sight.”

NetApp is in the midst of a transformation. Traditionally known as a hardware storage company, NetApp presented a cloud-first message at its customer and partner conference, Insight 2019.

{Related: CRN Exclusive: NetApp CEO George Kurian On Keystone, Clouds And Competition]

“We promised and we’ve delivered to enable you to transform your IT,” CEO George Kurian said on stage. He kicked off Insight with the announcement of Keystone, a consumption-based hybrid, multi-cloud platform that makes it, “easy to consume and easy to operate NetApp capabilities.”

NetApp’s partners play a key in the company’s transition to cloud, according to Chief Marketing Officer James Whitemore.

“If you look around NetApp Insight, this year is the first time we set out to design NetApp Insight around our partner community. Our number one objective is to get as many of our partners here as possible so that we can show them what we’re doing and even change their opinions on how NetApp is. We aren’t the same company we were three years ago.”

Watch CRN’s video included in this article for more coverage.