NetApp bullish on India, eyes start-up pie

LAS VEGAS: NetApp, a data storage vendor which has shaved off 10% from its rivals' market share in the last seven quarters to acquire 17% of the Indian market, has set its eyes on a stronger showing over the next few years.
The company which, simply speaking, provides storage space to enterprises and service providers alike, announced products and a strategy driven by what it called the 'Data Fabric' at its annual Insight conference, convened this year in Las Vegas.
Companies and individuals, depending on the size and sensitivity of their data, use two types of clouds, the private cloud and the public cloud - jargon for information that is privately owned and for that which is shared with others. The problem with a private cloud is its cost, the advantage is that the data is secure and private. With the public cloud, the upside is its low initial cost, the downside is concerns with data security and control.
NetApp's fabric basically intends to be the data highway between the two that will help users move, integrate and manage information seamlessly, the firm's executive vice-president (product operations) George Kurian said.
The product, though part of a worldwide strategy, can shake-up the start-up market in India, as these upstarts are the most inconvenienced by data storage costs and inflexibility since, fighting for survival against behemoths and the volatile nature of their growth or decline, they find it difficult to build their own IT network, while also unable to easily exploit the public cloud due to data security issues. NetApp's data fabric opens up for them some sort of a cloud mall, with the affordability of the public cloud and the security of the private cloud.
"I believe we have pulled together a talented team that can deliver on our vision of helping enterprises, SMBs (small and medium businesses) and government manage their data (both structured & unstructured), while lending them agility and competitive advantages," said NetApp's India and Saarc president Anil Valluri, claiming that the company racked up 45 new SMB and start-up clients in each of the last four quarters.
Asked if India is among NetApp's target markets, Karthik Ramarao, chief technical officer (CTO) for Asia Pacific, said, "Absolutely. With the diverse set of technologies we offer, we are the best placed company to grab the market and bridge the gaps in the data management industry."
Targets may be targets, but with the company recently breaking ground for its own 17-acre campus in Bangalore, where it also has its single largest research and development centre in the world, it definitely wants to signal that it is here for the long run.
(The writer was invited by NetApp Inc for its conference in Las Vegas)