thanks, i've only recently discovered NTAP, mostly via EMC's rearview mirror. getting smart on the upstart competition so to speak.
I am not sure that NTAP would be characterized as in EMC's rearview mirrors. Perhaps side view mirror or through the video monitor on a different race track. <g>
nevertheless, i'm not sporting blinders and am definitely intrigued by this one, its management cadre, and slew of positive press (e.g., OEM agreement with dell, smartmoney, fool, investor). one question: did you note EMC's recent release on their celerra file server?
Interesting news on the Celerra. It does seem very complex, though, compared to NTAP architecture. Did you know that there had been some successful installations of Symmetrix with NTAP "headends" serving as the network attachment? The Symmetrix then looked like a big SCSI drive to the NTAP, as I understood it.
I think it is important to note that Thomson (the Celerra customer) was already a big time EMC customer in the mainframe arena. It would be only natural for them to stick with EMC for network attached NFS file storage as well.
granted, it's first in two years since this product debuted (and requires symmetrix as well), but it tells me that perhaps these two will be converging on the same market sooner than anticipated.
Yes, as NTAP storage capacity rises, as EMC sees NTAP in "the rearview mirror", there is bound to be convergence and competition. EMC will have some tough choices to make as that happens, because the architecture of EMC just doesn't compare to that of NTAP. And price/KB will be very hard to meet and maintain margins, IMO.
i'm curious of your long-term outlook on NTAP's technology and business prospects. for example, do you see their cache products beginning to account for a larger slice of their revenue pie?
NetCache has only been a product for about 18 months, as I recall, but it is now 10% of their sales with their sales growing 80%+/year. So yes, NetCache will continue to grow as a percent of sales. However, it will be as an appliance (hardware and software), not just software.
NTAP has relied almost completely on a direct sales model. The sale of the product requires a well-trained sales rep to explain to sophisticated customers, traditionally in the UNIX arena. Now, especially with the Windows file server capabilities, NTAP is able to move toward an indirect sales model. Thus the relationship with Dell and Fujitsu.
of their competitors, whom do you think represents the greatest threat (SUNW, HP)? (i note that ASPX has severely stumbled.)
ASPX didn't just stumble. NTAP purposefully crushed them! (The original founders of NTAP were from ASPX, as is the VP of Sales.) Their greatest threat may turn out to be CPQ, as only CPQ has the need and the talent to satisfy WINTEL and UNIX storage needs, and the talent to do it. HP competes with their OEM products, but isn't really focused and seems totally unaware of the WINTEL marketplace for storage. SUNW sees storage as a low margin market and will continue to provide the servers to ISPs and engineering environments as NTAP follows up with storage.
finally, is their customer base well diversified? i know they have a few major fortune 500's like aol, cisco, motorola, and yahoo; however, does one or do a handful represent a significant percentage?
I can't give you any numbers, but I know that NTAP's customers are everything from mom and pops to Fortune 100. They have very good Fed Gov't business. They are very focused on sales. A very motivated sales force. The product is so easy to install, they need very few field engineering resources, so the engineers spend most of their time doing pre-sales work and post sales customer satisfaction work. Very satisfied installed base.
Love to hear your impressions as you explore the company. I believe that EMC and NTAP will both continue to do very well for several years. Their market space is expanding rapidly. |
