Wikibon Co-Founder and Chief Analyst Dave Vellante says that despite the Street’s hesitations about NetApp, the company is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the current trends in the marketplace. Management has its work cut out for it, but it’s all or nothing at this point.

Wall Street is not content with the direction that NetApp has taken in recent years: the storage vendor whooshed through the rescission of 2010-2011, but did not keep this momentum for long. The company’s massive cash stockpile has also drawn criticism, but recent efforts to “share the cash love” have distracted shareholders from this particularly painful point. Perhaps most notable is the perception that NetApp is falling behind the curve, a claim that Vellante disputes. NetApp is currently the only major pure play storage vendor, he notes, and it’s performing relatively well compared to the competition (with the exception of EMC).

Vellante highlights that the company is going through a massive transition. NetApp is betting it all on OnCommand, the clustering technology it built into its storage operating system. The software serves as a centralized control plane that combines automation and multi-vendor support, realizing the potential of clustered ONTAP.

In Vellante’s view, NetApp has to board the software-defined storage train. The company is well positioned to enter this space thanks to its highly virtualized architecture, rich feature set and heterogonous approach – but it will have to act fast or risk falling behind.

If you want to find out more about NetApp and software-defined storage, be sure to join the #NetAppChat happening on Twitter today at 12pm PST (3pm EST). The discussion will be moderated by Dave Vellante and SiliconAngle Editor-in-Chief John Furrier, and feature executives from NetApp, VMware, and two of their customers.