As part of their continuing SAP SAPphire 2012 coverage at #theCube, John Furrier and Dave Vellante spoke with Thomas Stanley, former baseball player turned tech Global Alliance VP for NetApp (see full interview below).  Vellante noted that SAP SAPphire messaging had changed since last year, now focusing more on “speed, simplicity, personalization [and] mobility.”

Using the baseball analogy, Stanley explained in terms of new technology adoption and SAP, “we are definitely in the 7th inning stretch.”  Now the products are on the marketplace and the important questions according to Stanley are: “How does the ecosystem come together?…What are [the] workloads [and] customer requirements?…Are we able to fulfill them?”

SAP provides major workloads to NetApp and Stanley explained the company’s go-to-market for SAP meant maintaining their status as leaders in innovation and data solutions.

Stanley also discussed what Vellante considered the “land grab for FlexPod.”  Net App has had significant growth in FlexPod architecture and clients appreciate the enhanced innovation and R&D.  For NetApp, Flex Pod helps provide the architecture that allows its clients to realize their main goals of reducing time to market, cost and risk.  The value Net App brings suggests there should be no premium attached to FlexPod architecture.  Vellante predicts that, in the future, most of the market will converge and open architecture will be the largest segment.

NetApp plans to continue integration with SAP, a big drive of workload, to bring significant value to the marketplace.  Stanley suggests: “It’s not just what our people do with our software…it’s what do we do with our software connected to the applications that SAP is bringing to the market…our job is to be number 1 in that.”