NetApp: A Company History
The Beginning of NetApp
David Hitz, James Lau, and Michael Malcolm established NetApp in 1992. NetApp is an American multinational company selling data storage solutions and components. Headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, NetApp has been one of the top companies in the industry for a long time, and is the creator of the Data ONTAP operating system.
The first ever functional product introduced to the market was the filer in the year 1994. Winning the market with its simplicity in design and efficiency in work, NetApp experienced a business peak between 1990- 2001.
What makes NetApp Popular Today?
Netapp has sold and bought multiple products over the years of its operation. In 2006, they sold NetCache to Blue Coat Systems. It bought Riverbed Technology’s SteelStore data backup line in 2014 and renamed it to AltaVault. In 2015, NetApp acquired SolidFire as a part of its expansion.
What are the most popular products from the company?
NetApp’s most popular product is its NetApp Filers. Working on their conventional Data ONTAP operating system, NetApp stands out from its competitors because it is the only system allowing network related storage, while the others use block storage.
Unlike other companies, NetApp used NFS and SMB protocols and works over Local Area Networks (LANs) instead of Storage Area Networks which work over Fibre Channel protocols.
Change in Technology
Since 2016, however, NetApp filers are made to work on FC protocols alongside iCSCI and FCoE protocols.
Following the Filer, which was the first NetApp product, many more storage solutions like NearStore, NetCache, and other cloud computing and storage devices have been brought into the market.
Other Remarkable Contributions of NetApp:
Write Anywhere File Layout (WAFL)
NetApp also created the Write Anywhere File Layout (WAFL) to use in its storage systems. The innovation allows easy backup and prevents loss of any data in the event of a crash. NetApp incorporated the WAFL technology into their RAID systems.
Data ONTAP OS
Operating system Data ONTAP allows for compression and duplication of data and easy file viewing. It also saves files in the form of Snapshots.
NetApp also fits its devices with protection software such as MetroCluster, SnapVault, SnapRestore, SnapLock, SnapMirror and SnapProtect for leveraged security.
NetApp Recognitions and Reputation
Apart from their fantastic products, NetApp has been said to be one of the best companies to work for, and has been featured in ‘Fortune’s Top 100 Companies to Work For’ since 2009, and was listed on Silicon Valley’s Top 25 Corporate Philanthropists in 2013.