Targeting NetApp

Network Appliance has a target on its back, and companies large and small are taking aim.

Consider these recent news items: ONStor has launched a device called Pantera, which includes its existing Bobcat NAS gateway and for the first time, integral back-end NAS storage. (See ONStor Adds Its Own Back End.)

According to ONStor CEO Bob Miller, his company is tired of seeing NetApp and other NAS makers take money for storage ONStor could provide. "Historically, people spend one dollar on the gateway and three dollars on storage. We found it frustrating to watch us get one dollar when we did all the hard work, and watch the customer who wanted to buy storage from us spend three dollars on somebody else."

ONStor's first official NAS is priced to undercut offerings from NetApp and EMC. What's more, ONStor will continue to sell its gateways with storage from 3PAR, Compellent, Nexsan, and Xiotech to compete with NetApp's unified storage offerings.

Then there's 3PAR, which is also taking aim at NetApp with its newly hatched midrange SANs. (See 3PAR Aims for Midsection.) "Now we're scaling right into the heart of the midrange, so we will fully expect to compete against NetApp and the HP EVA as well as the [EMC] Clariion,” says 3PAR CEO Dave Scott.There are plenty more examples. Reldata and Nexsan have doubled up to sell Reldata's NAS and IP SAN gateway with Nexsan's SATA disk systems. Guess who's in the crosshairs? (See Startups Seek Double-Team Plays.)

NetApp doesn't seem worried. Its coping mechanism includes a move into enterprise SAN gear in a bid to reinvent itself along the lines of EMC – which, of course, is reinventing itself along the lines of IBM. (See NetApp Scales Up.)

NetApp's tack appears to be working so far, as the vendor claimed sizeable revenues from its new enterprise systems last quarter. (See NetApp: 'We're Winning' and IBM Addresses High End.) Still, there are other forces at work that could shift NetApp's future plans.

Despite solid financials, NetApp faces an increasingly aggressive fight at the high end, particularly from EMC and HP, even as smaller fry like 3PAR nip at its heels. The result will challenge the NAS vendor's stakes in both NAS and SAN segments, where robust growth is favoring lots of activity, on both the sales and financial fronts.

Indeed, there are rumblings that NetApp could be a combination candidate at some point. In our latest storage poll, 19 percent of 103 readers think NetApp is the likeliest storage company to be acquired, following 22 percent who think the same of QLogic, and ahead of 17 percent for Avamar, 14 percent for Kazeon and unspecified Others, 7 percent for EqualLogic, and 6 percent for Asigra.Who would acquire NetApp? Well, if you look again at our poll, 47 percent of 103 readers think Cisco will be the next big firm to make a dramatic acquisition; 22 percent pick IBM; and 11 percent are banking on HP.

Then again, 7 percent of readers opine that NetApp itself will make a stunning acquisition – perhaps of Sun or HDS?

Got an opinion on it all? Write to us at [email protected]. We'll tally the comments in an upcoming story.

— Mary Jander, Site Editor, Byte and Switch