IBM and NetApp

If they can drive the IBM relationship hard, via the IBM rebadging of the NetApp units as IBM N Series (see http://www-304.ibm.com/jct03004c/systems/storage/network/) they should do much better. Unfortunately IBM sell NetApp as NAS and there are few skills within IBM on the more complex N Series. IBM prefer to sell their DS range. This, combined with poorly performing local agents/distributors in many countries just fulfilling orders to the large buyers such as Yahoo and Google, has contributed to flat sales.

The NetApp story is quite attractive, especially when combined with virtualisation and business continuity. Their snapshot technology enables protection against software corruption and the SnapMirror replication software is better than similar products from EMC and HP. Maybe they should try should modelling of price elasticity and see if dropping the software prices will increase sales.