Published on the 26/08/2015 | Written by Beverley Head
Storage and data management business NetApp wants to do for big business data what Apple did for consumers’ – it’s turning out to be a big ask…
According to the recently installed chief executive officer of NetApp, George Kurian, the company wants to deliver to enterprises the sort of data fabric that Apple wove for consumers when it developed technologies and platforms which equipped users to easily share content across multiple devices.
Kurian, on a visit to Sydney this week, said data remained an enterprise’s most important asset. However after commissioning a survey of 468 Australian and New Zealand CEOs and CIOs NetApp has been forced to acknowledge that ANZ businesses have a long journey ahead of them if they are to become data sophisticates.
While C-suite executives surveyed by Tech Research Asia acknowledged that there is the potential for significant long term disruption of their businesess caused by multiple factors (led by economic change, technology innovation and the internet) and changing consumer expectations and behaviour, just 24 percent are using data to prepare for the changes these trends would wreak.
According to NetApp, at this stage ANZ enterprises demonstrate a “lack of understanding of what a data fabric means,” with many confusing network fabric – which was used for data in motion – with a data fabric – used to handle data at rest.
The challenge for NetApp will be to explain the concept and convince C-suite executives that a data fabric approach will deliver a return on investment.
For NetApp, there is a degree of urgency to sell its message after a less than stellar financial report card earlier this month for the first quarter of the year. The company made a $US30million loss on revenues of $US1.34 billion.
It is also being challenged by the volatility in global currency markets and this week acknowledged that although there was a growth in the volume of technology being shipped and the number of customers, that was not directly translating into $US revenue figures.
Rick Scurfield, senior vice president and general manager for APAC, said: “We hope that the external shock bottoms out and turns to our favour.”
Kurian, meanwhile, has characterised the company as entering a new chapter and “pivoting” to better meet the needs of its customers. It has forecast a return to profits, and claims strong “triple digit growth” in emerging technologies such as flash memory, albeit off a low base.
