UPDATED 17:30 EDT / OCTOBER 23 2018

INFRA

NetApp sets out to prove multicloud prowess at Insight 2018

A lot of dins are coming from NetApp Inc.’s marketing department about transforming into something more than a storage company. But what exactly is that something? According to the company’s marketing executives, it’s all to do with data management for multicloud. Is there any beef to this claim, and where does that place NetApp in the enterprise cloud market?

Stu Miniman (@stu), co-host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, and co-host Lisa Martin (@LuccaZara) analyzed NetApp’s market position during today’s NetApp Insight event in Las Vegas. They discussed NetApp’s pivot into multicloud, digital transformation, and their play for containerization support through Kubernetes, among other topics. (* Disclosure below.)

Storage forays into DX, Kubernetes

“What is the NetApp of 2019 and beyond?” asked Stu Miniman (@stu), co-host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio. “Are they a storage company? Are they a hybrid multicloud software-led something-something company in the future? Are they a services company?”

In essence, is NetApp bringing anything to market that makes them a better fit for multicloud than other storage vendors or cloud companies? One indicator is NetApp’s early lead compared to other storage sector counterparts, quick to signal its cloud-worthiness, according to Miniman.

“Most of the storage companies really lined up, and it was like, ‘Oh wait. Amazon’s the competition. You can’t do that,'” Miniman stated.

How much farther can NetApp go in multicloud and digital transformation?

It’s clear from NetApp’s website, press releases, etc., that “they’re really putting cloud at the heart of their strategy,” Martin said. The company’s Data Fabric is transforming from a vision into an actual architecture for cross-cloud data management. And NetApp recently acquired StackPointCloud Inc. to boost its efforts with Kubernetes, the open-source platform for managing containers. The virtualized method for running deployed applications has shaken up operations across all aspects of computing infrastructure.

“I’ve been going to the KubeCon shows for a couple of years, and storage is actually lagging in that space,” Miniman said. NetApp helped solve a lot of storage woes in the virtualization era, “so it would be great to see how they are going to play into the Kubernetes and Istio [service mesh] discussion,” Miniman concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the NetApp Insight event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for NetApp Insight. Neither NetApp Inc., the event sponsor, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: NetApp Inc.

A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:

Support our mission to keep content open and free by engaging with theCUBE community. Join theCUBE’s Alumni Trust Network, where technology leaders connect, share intelligence and create opportunities.

  • 15M+ viewers of theCUBE videos, powering conversations across AI, cloud, cybersecurity and more
  • 11.4k+ theCUBE alumni — Connect with more than 11,400 tech and business leaders shaping the future through a unique trusted-based network.
About SiliconANGLE Media
SiliconANGLE Media is a recognized leader in digital media innovation, uniting breakthrough technology, strategic insights and real-time audience engagement. As the parent company of SiliconANGLE, theCUBE Network, theCUBE Research, CUBE365, theCUBE AI and theCUBE SuperStudios — with flagship locations in Silicon Valley and the New York Stock Exchange — SiliconANGLE Media operates at the intersection of media, technology and AI.

Founded by tech visionaries John Furrier and Dave Vellante, SiliconANGLE Media has built a dynamic ecosystem of industry-leading digital media brands that reach 15+ million elite tech professionals. Our new proprietary theCUBE AI Video Cloud is breaking ground in audience interaction, leveraging theCUBEai.com neural network to help technology companies make data-driven decisions and stay at the forefront of industry conversations.