Get out your #1 foam fingers

Two decades ago, NetApp led the industry in introducing unified file and block storage. Over the last decade, we’ve led the industry in expanding unified storage across the hybrid multi-cloud, allowing customers to have a single set of rich data management services anywhere their data lives.

Not only do we provide NAS, SAN, & object across on-prem and all the major cloud providers, but we THRIVE in all of them. And that’s not just our idle boast: GigaOm, a respected independent industry analyst firm, recently published a series of reports (“Radars”) that show NetApp as a leader in cloud file services, primary storage (block), and enterprise scale-out file systems.

We’ve made a free summary of all three reports available, with links to the deep-dive analysis on NetApp and other vendors inside.

More importantly, not only are we the leader in all three reports, but NetApp is the ONLY vendor identified as a leader in all three reports. Take a moment to think about that achievement – the only vendor to provide cloud file services, block, and enterprise scale-out file – and not just to show up, but to be a Leader in all of them. There’s a reason customers trust NetApp.

One more data point: We accomplished this feat with a single enterprise data management operating system: NetApp ONTAP. ONTAP powers our AFF/FAS unified SAN/NAS/object appliances on-prem and our offerings in-cloud including Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP, Azure NetApp Files, Cloud Volumes Service on Google Cloud, and many more.

There are a few vendors who appear on two out of the three radars, and one vendor who appears on two Radars and has a subsidiary on the third. But in each case, they are doing so with entirely different product lines! That has consequences – one of those vendors were specifically called out for “introducing new advanced features at a slower pace, mostly missing on cloud integration.” They have my sympathy – it is difficult to innovate on a fractured product portfolio and succeed both in on-prem and the cloud doing so. Only NetApp has the innovative ONTAP platform that has proven capable of doing so.

But don’t take my word for it, take GigaOm’s. And I quote:

“NetApp is a clear winner due to the overall company strategy: NetApp offers a unified platform with ONTAP, unmatched cloud integration, and a rich set of data services.”^{GigaOm Radar for Enterprise Scale-out File Systems, Dec. 2021}

In short: If you’re an enterprise that has block workloads, file workloads, and has data on-prem and/or in the public cloud (and honestly, who isn’t?), NetApp is the one and only clear choice.