Item 1. Business
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Item 1. Business
Overview
NetApp, Inc. (NetApp, we, us or the Company) is a global cloud-led, data-centric software company. We were incorporated in 1992 and are headquartered in San Jose, California. Building on more than three decades of innovation, we give customers the freedom to manage applications and data across hybrid multicloud environments. Our portfolio of cloud services, and storage infrastructure, powered by intelligent data management software, enables applications to run faster, more reliably, and more securely, all at a lower cost.
Our opportunity is defined by the durable megatrends of data-driven digital and cloud transformations. NetApp helps organizations meet the complexities created by rapid data and cloud growth, multi-cloud management, and the adoption of next-generation technologies, such as AI, Kubernetes, and modern databases. Our modern approach to hybrid, multicloud infrastructure and data management, which we term ‘evolved cloud’, provides customers the ability to leverage data across their entire estate with simplicity, security, and sustainability which increases our relevance and value to our customers.
In an evolved cloud state, the cloud is fully integrated into an organization’s architecture and operations. Data centers and clouds are seamlessly united and hybrid multicloud operations are simplified, with consistency and observability across environments. The key benefits NetApp brings to an organization’s hybrid multicloud environment are:
Operational simplicity: NetApp’s use of open source, open architectures and APIs, microservices, and common capabilities and data services facilitate the creation of applications that can run anywhere.
Flexibility and consistency: NetApp makes moving data and applications between environments seamless through a common storage foundation across on-premises and multicloud environments.
Cyber resilience: NetApp unifies monitoring, data protection, security, governance, and compliance for total cyber resilience - with consistency and automation across environments.
Continuous operations: NetApp uses AI-driven automation for continuous optimization to service applications and store stateless and stateful applications at the lowest possible costs.
Sustainability: NetApp has industry-leading tools to audit consumption, locate waste, and set guardrails to stop overprovisioning.
Product, Solutions and Services Portfolio
NetApp's portfolio of cloud services and storage infrastructure is powered by intelligent data management software. Our operations are organized into two segments: Hybrid Cloud and Public Cloud.
Hybrid Cloud
Hybrid Cloud offers a portfolio of storage management and infrastructure solutions that help customers recast their traditional data centers into modern data centers with the power of the cloud. Our hybrid cloud portfolio is designed to operate with public clouds to unlock the potential of hybrid, multi-cloud operations. We offer a broad portfolio of cloud-connected all-flash, hybrid-flash, and object storage systems, powered by intelligent data management software. Hybrid Cloud is composed of software, hardware, and related support, as well as professional and other services.
Intelligent data management software
NetApp ONTAP software is our foundational technology that underpins NetApp's critical storage solutions in the data center and the cloud. ONTAP includes various data management and protection features and capabilities, including automatic ransomware protection against cyber-attacks, built-in data transport features, and storage efficiency capabilities. ONTAP provides the flexibility to design and deploy a storage environment across the broadest range of architectures – from on-premises, hybrid, public, and private clouds. It can be used in NAS, SAN, object environments, and software-defined storage (SDS) situations.
Data integrity and safety are at the heart of any company’s data center. With NetApp’s extensive software tools and utilities, customers can realize their business continuity goals with time, costs, and personnel savings. With NetApp Snapshot, customers can create and manage point-in-time file system copies with no performance impact and minimal storage consumption. This is important for continuous data protection of information in read-only, static, and immutable form. NetApp SnapCenter Backup Management software is designed to deliver high-performance backup and recovery for database and application workloads hosted on ONTAP storage. NetApp SnapMirror Data Replication software can replicate data at high speeds across environments. SnapMirror delivers
robust data management capabilities for virtualization, protecting critical data while providing the flexibility to move data between locations and storage tiers, including cloud service providers. NetApp SnapLock Data Compliance software delivers high-performance disk-based data permanence for HDD and SSD deployments.
NetApp Astra (Astra) is a fully managed application-aware data management service built for emerging Kubernetes workloads container infrastructures. Astra allows organizations to protect, recover, and move applications deployed on Kubernetes with no software to download, install, manage, or upgrade.
Storage infrastructure
NetApp All-Flash FAS (AFF A-Series) is a scale-out platform built for virtualized environments, combining low-latency performance via flash memory (also known as a solid-state storage disk) with best-in-class data management, built-in efficiencies, integrated data protection, multiprotocol support, and nondisruptive operations; cloud and on-premises. AFF A-Series, powered by ONTAP, allows customers to connect to clouds for more data services, data tiering, caching, and disaster recovery. The AFF A-Series has a portfolio of products designed for multiple markets and price/performance considerations, from smaller channel commercial market offerings to large-scale, global enterprises.
NetApp QLC-Flash FAS (AFF C-Series) is NetApp’s newest family of storage infrastructure solutions. AFF C-Series arrays are sustainable, scalable, and secure solutions for Tier 1 and Tier 2 applications. AFF C-series provides customers capacity flash performance and affordability, so that customers do not need to make compromises. The AFF C-Series is ideal for transitioning from hybrid/HDD to all-flash storage; running non-latency sensitive VMware database applications and file environments; and providing a solution for secondary storage targets for disaster recovery, backup, and tiering.
NetApp Fabric Attached Storage (FAS) series are high-volume, high-capacity data storage devices powered by NetApp ONTAP. NetApp FAS Storage Arrays provide customers with a balance of performance and capacity running either disk drives or hybrid-flash configurations. FAS systems are suitable for secondary storage targets for disaster recovery, backup, and tiering.
NetApp E/EF series is built for dedicated, high-bandwidth applications that need simple, fast SAN storage with enterprise-grade reliability. The E-Series is available as a hybrid-flash platform, while the EF-Series is all-flash. On the SANtricity storage operating system, the E/EF-Series storage appliances are designed for performance-sensitive workloads like real-time analytics, high performance computing, and databases.
NetApp StorageGRID is a software-defined object storage solution for large archives, media repositories, and web data stores. Using the industry-standard object APIs like the Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), the StorageGRID solution, running on the ElementOS data management storage operating system, is provided as a NetApp-branded storage solution and as a software-defined solution on third-party hardware.
Public Cloud
Public Cloud offers a portfolio of products delivered primarily as-a-service, including related support. This portfolio includes cloud storage and data services and cloud operations services. Our enterprise-class solutions and services enable customers to control and manage storage in the cloud, consume high-performance storage services for primary workloads, and optimize cloud environments for cost and efficiency. These solutions and services are generally available on the leading public clouds, including Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.
Cloud storage, data services, and software
The NetApp Cloud Volumes Platform is an integrated collection of cloud storage infrastructure and data services. The platform is anchored by NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP, a cloud-based software for customers who wish to manage their own cloud storage infrastructure. It is based on the same ONTAP data management software that underpins our storage infrastructure offerings. Fully managed cloud storage offerings are available natively on Microsoft Azure as Azure NetApp Files, on AWS as Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP, and on Google Cloud as NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud.
Manageability
At the heart of our public cloud storage and data service offerings is NetApp BlueXP. BlueXP is a unified control plane that enables customers to manage their entire data landscape through one single, SaaS-delivered point of control. NetApp BlueXP combines storage and data services via its unified control plane to change how hybrid, multicloud environments are managed, optimized, and controlled. An intuitive interface and powerful automation help decrease resource waste, complexity, and the risk of managing diverse environments. It brings customers operational simplicity in a complex world. Within BlueXP are standard and optional capabilities (services) which allow customers to control their data and operations.
With BlueXP Sync service, customers can migrate data to the cloud securely and efficiently. Customers can choose where to deploy primary workloads without re-architecting applications or databases. Customers also get a comprehensive, industry-leading portfolio of storage efficiency capabilities. Inline data compression, deduplication, compaction, and cloud tiering (BlueXP Tiering service) work together to reduce storage costs and maximize data storage. NetApp Backup service delivers seamless and cost-effective backup and restore capabilities for protecting and archiving cloud and on-premises data managed by ONTAP. BlueXP Compliance service provides data discovery, mapping, and classification driven by artificial intelligence algorithms with automated controls and reporting for data privacy regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and more. Lastly, the BlueXP Cache service delivers fast and secure access to data for users by caching active data sets to distributed offices globally.
Cloud operations services
NetApp Cloud Insights is an infrastructure monitoring tool that gives organizations visibility into their entire infrastructure. It can monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize costs across all resources, including public clouds and private data centers. Working in conjunction with the BlueXP manageability and control plane services, customers can have deep insights into their data operations.
Our Spot by NetApp suite of products delivers a platform for cloud operations, enabling customers to deploy and operate cloud applications reliably and securely in their choice of the cloud while reducing costs and complexity. Combining machine learning, predictive analytics, and cloud automation, the Spot platform continuously optimizes cloud infrastructure and operations to deliver scalable, reliable, and secure application infrastructure.
Another cloud operations service is Instaclustr, our platform that provides fully managed open-source databases, pipelines, and workflow applications delivered as a service. Instaclustr helps organizations deliver cloud-native applications at scale by operating and supporting their data infrastructure through its SaaS platform for those designing and building around open-source technologies.
Professional and Support Services
NetApp and our certified services partners offer a comprehensive portfolio of assessment, design, implementation, migration, and proactive support services to help customers optimize the performance and efficiency of their on-premises and hybrid multicloud storage environments. Our portfolio of offerings include strategic consulting, professional, managed, and support services.
NetApp strategic consulting services provide executive-level, high-touch consulting engagements to help organizations facilitate the alignment of their business and technology goals. Our proven expertise can help organizations define long-term data fabric strategies and operations models to drive IT initiatives for digital transformation.
NetApp Professional Services provide the expertise to mitigate risk and streamline the design, implementation, migration, and integration of NetApp hybrid cloud solutions to realize the business benefits of new technology investments faster. Highly skilled services experts help enable secure, optimized environments that deliver the consistent, high-quality outcomes customers expect from the start.
NetApp Managed Services optimize performance and efficiency in hybrid cloud and on-premises environments. Our NetApp experts use proven methodology and best practices to monitor, administer, operate, and optimize customer environments so their organization's IT staff is free to focus on initiatives to move the business forward.
NetApp Keystone is our pay-as-you-grow, storage-as-a-service (STaaS) offering that delivers a seamless hybrid cloud experience for those preferring operating expense consumption models to upfront capital expense or leasing. With a unified management console and monthly bill for both on-premises and cloud data storage services, Keystone lets organizations provision and monitor, and even move storage spend across their hybrid cloud environment for financial and operational flexibility.
NetApp Global Support supplies systems, processes, and people wherever needed to provide continuous operation in complex and critical environments, with an emphasis on proactive and preemptive technology support for operational continuity across the NetApp hybrid cloud. Personalized support options provide actionable intelligence to resolve problems faster, reduce downtime, and optimize performance of the entire NetApp ecosystem.
Sales, Principal Markets, and Distribution Channels
We market and sell our products and services in numerous countries throughout the world. Our sales efforts are organized around the evolving needs of our current and targeted customers, and our marketing initiatives reflect this focus. NetApp uses a multichannel distribution strategy. We sell our products, solutions and services to end-user business customers and service providers through a direct sales force and an ecosystem of partners, including the leading cloud providers. Our marketing is focused on building our brand reputation, creating market awareness, communicating customer advantages and generating demand for our sales force and channel partners.
Our diversified customer base spans industry segments and vertical markets such as energy, financial services, government, technology, internet, life sciences, healthcare services, manufacturing, media, entertainment, animation, video postproduction and telecommunications. NetApp focuses primarily on the enterprise storage and data management, cloud storage and cloud operations markets. We design our products to meet the evolving requirements of a hybrid, multicloud world, driven by digital transformation and cloud initiatives.
Our partnerships with the industry’s leading cloud, infrastructure, consulting, application, and reseller partners are created with one goal in mind: the success of our customers. Global enterprises, local businesses, and government installations look to NetApp and our ecosystem of partners to help maximize the business value of their IT and cloud investments.
We work with a wide range of partners for our customers, including technology partners, value-added resellers, system integrators, OEMs, service providers and distributors. During fiscal 2023, sales through our indirect channels represented 78% of our net revenues. Our global partner ecosystem is critical to NetApp’s growth and success. We are continually strengthening existing partnerships and investing in new ones to ensure we are meeting the evolving needs of our customers.
As of April 28, 2023, our worldwide sales and marketing functions consisted of approximately 5,700 managers, sales representatives and technical support personnel. We have offices in approximately 25 countries. Sales to customers Arrow Electronics, Inc. and Tech Data Corporation accounted for 24% and 21% of our net revenues, respectively, in fiscal 2023. Information about sales to and accounts receivables from our major customers, segment disclosures, foreign operations and net sales attributable to our geographic regions is included in Note 15 – Segment, Geographic, and Significant Customer Information of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.
Seasonality
We have historically experienced a sequential decline in revenues in the first quarter of our fiscal year, as the sales organization spends time developing new business after higher close rates in the fourth quarter, and because sales to European customers are typically weaker during the summer months. We derive a substantial amount of our revenue in any given quarter from customer orders booked in the same quarter. Customer orders and revenues typically follow intra-quarter seasonality patterns weighted toward the back end of the quarter. If recurring services and cloud revenue continue to increase as a percentage of our total revenues, historical seasonal patterns may become less pronounced.
Backlog
We manufacture products based on a combination of specific order requirements and forecasts of our customers’ demand. Orders are generally placed by customers on an as-needed basis. A substantial portion of our products is sold on the basis of standard purchase orders that are cancelable prior to shipment without penalty. In certain circumstances, purchase orders are subject to change with respect to quantity of product or timing of delivery resulting from changes in customer requirements. Our business is characterized by seasonal and intra-quarter variability in demand, as well as short lead times and product delivery schedules. Accordingly, backlog at any given time may not be a meaningful indicator of future revenue.
Manufacturing and Supply Chain
We have outsourced manufacturing operations to third parties located in Fremont, California; San Jose, California; San Antonio, Texas; Guadalajara, Mexico; Schiphol Airport, The Netherlands; Tiszaujvaros, Hungary; Wuxi, China; Taoyuan City, Taiwan; and Singapore. These operations include materials procurement, commodity management, component engineering, test engineering, manufacturing engineering, product assembly, product assurance, quality control, final test, and global logistics. We rely on a limited number of suppliers for materials, as well as several key subcontractors for the production of certain subassemblies and finished systems. We strive to have multiple suppliers qualified to provide critical components where possible and have our products manufactured in a number of locations to mitigate our supply chain risk. Our strategy has been to develop close relationships with our suppliers, maximizing the exchange of critical information and facilitating the implementation of joint quality programs. We use contract manufacturers for the production of major subassemblies and final system configuration. This manufacturing strategy minimizes capital investments and overhead expenditures while creating flexibility for rapid expansion.
We are certified to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 certification standards. We have been Tier 2 certified under the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT) program since January 2015.
Research and Development
Our research and development team delivers innovation to help customers create an evolved cloud experience. Our R&D structure allows us to align and accelerate the execution of our strategies and roadmaps across product groups. We leverage our talent and shared IP for cloud- and hybrid-cloud solutions to remain agile to changing market conditions. Our R&D priorities are to help
customers break down silos to simplify management, create consistency, and deliver observability across on premises and multiple cloud environments. We design our products and services from the ground up with cloud connectivity in mind, including tiering, disaster recovery, replication, bursting, and migration.
We conduct research and development activities in various locations throughout the world. Total research and development expenses were $956 million in fiscal 2023, and $881 million in each of fiscal 2022 and fiscal 2021. These costs consist primarily of personnel and related costs incurred to conduct product development activities. Although we develop many of our products internally, we also acquire technology through business combinations or through licensing from third parties when appropriate. We believe that technical leadership is essential to our success, and we expect to continue to commit substantial resources to research and development.
Competition
We operate in an industry in which there are rapid technological advances in hardware, software, and related services offerings. Cloud, digital transformation, and artificial intelligence initiatives are driving changes in customer and solution requirements.
We compete with many companies in the markets we serve. Our hybrid cloud solutions primarily compete with legacy IT and storage vendors. Some offer a broad spectrum of products, solutions and services and others offer a more limited set of storage- and data-management products, solutions or services. Additionally, public cloud providers offer customers storage as an operating expense which competes with more traditional storage offerings that customers acquire through capital expenditures. We both partner with and compete against cloud providers with our public cloud software and services. We rarely see legacy vendors competing in the cloud.
We compete with many companies in the cloud operations marketplace, including new companies (startups) and larger software companies who target developers, operations engineering (DevOps) and financial engineering (FinOps). Some companies have single point solutions that compete with one of our services and others are building platforms. Additionally public cloud providers offer similar services on their own cloud.
We face ongoing product and price competition in all areas of our business, including from both branded- and generic-product competitors.
Our current and potential competitors may establish cooperative relationships among themselves or with third parties, including some of our partners. It is possible that new competitors or alliances among competitors might emerge and further increase competitive pressures.
We consider our software innovation, cloud integration, and technology partnerships key to our competitive differentiation. We believe our competitive advantage also includes the nature of the relationships we form with our customers and partners worldwide. We strive to deliver an outstanding experience in every interaction we have with our customers and partners through our product, service, and support offerings, which enables us to provide our customers a full range of expertise before, during and after their purchases.
Proprietary Rights
We generally rely on patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret and contract laws to establish and maintain our proprietary rights in our technology, products and services. While our intellectual property rights are important to our success, we believe that our business is not materially dependent on any particular patent, trademark, copyright, license or other individual intellectual property right. We have been granted, or own by assignment, well over two thousand U.S. patents, hundreds of pending U.S. patent applications, and many corresponding patents and patent applications in other countries. From time to time, we may make certain intellectual property available under an open source license. Our primary trademarks are NetApp and the NetApp design logo, which are registered trademarks in the U.S. and in many other countries. In addition, we have trademarks and trademark registrations in the U.S. and other countries covering our various product or service names.
We generally enter into confidentiality agreements with our employees, resellers, distributors, customers, and suppliers. In addition, through various licensing arrangements, we receive certain rights to the intellectual property of others. We expect to maintain current licensing arrangements and to secure additional licensing arrangements in the future, as needed and to the extent available on reasonable terms and conditions, to support continued development and sales of our products and services. Some of these licensing arrangements require or may require royalty payments and other licensing fees. The amount of these payments and fees may depend on various factors, including but not limited to the structure of royalty payments; offsetting considerations, if any; and the degree of use of the licensed technology.
The industry in which we compete is characterized by rapidly changing technology, a large number of patents, and frequent claims and related litigation regarding intellectual property rights, and we may be exposed to various risks related to such claims or legal
proceedings. If we are unable to protect our intellectual property, we may be subject to increased competition that could materially and adversely affect our business operations, financial condition, results of operations and/or cash flows.
Environmental Disclosure
We are committed to the success of our customers and partners, to delivering value to our stockholders, and to positively affecting the communities where our employees work and live. We firmly believe that we can accomplish these objectives concurrently with our commitment to sound environmental management. We are committed to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions; efficient use of natural resources; and minimizing, relative to the growth of the Company, the environmental impacts from our operations, products, and services, as well as complying with laws and regulations related to these areas.
We voluntarily measure, monitor, and publicly report our scope 1, scope 2, and scope 3 (partial) greenhouse gas emissions and water impacts to CDP, a global standardized mechanism by which companies report their greenhouse gas emissions and water impacts to customers and institutional investors. We continuously seek to optimize the energy efficiency of our buildings, labs, and data centers; and we have increased our use of renewable energy, especially at our facilities in Bangalore, India and Wichita, Kansas, both of which are powered almost exclusively by renewable energy.
At both the global and regional/state levels, various laws and regulations have been implemented or are under consideration to mitigate or report on the effects of climate change. Environmental laws are complex, change frequently, and have tended to become more stringent over time. However, it is often difficult to anticipate future regulations pertaining to environmental matters and to estimate their impacts on our operations. Based on current information, we believe that our primary risk related to climate change is the risk of increased energy costs. We are not currently subject to a cap-and-trade system or any other mitigation measures that could be material to our operations, nor are we aware of any such measures that will impact us in the near future. Additionally, we have implemented disaster recovery and business resiliency measures to mitigate the physical risks our facilities, business, and supply chain might face as a consequence of severe weather/climate-related phenomena such as earthquakes, floods, droughts, and other such natural occurrences.
We are subject to international, federal, state, and local regulations regarding workplace safety and protection of the environment. Various international, federal, state, and local provisions regulate the use and discharge of certain hazardous materials used in the manufacture of our products. Failure to comply with environmental regulations in the future could cause us to incur substantial costs, subject us to business interruptions or cause customers to cease purchasing from us. We strive to comply with all applicable environmental laws. All of our products meet the applicable requirements of the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH); Energy Related Products (ErP); Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS); and China RoHS directives. We have a product take-back program and an e-waste scheme to comply with the EU directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations in India.
We have maintained an environmental management system since December 2004 that provides the framework for setting, monitoring, and continuously improving our environmental goals and objectives. As part of ISO 14001 requirements, we set local environmental performance goals, such as reducing energy use per square foot and minimizing waste generated on site, that are aligned with our overall corporate strategy. We also conduct periodic reviews and are subject to third-party audits of our operations, and we monitor environmental legislation and requirements to help make sure we are taking necessary measures to remain in compliance with applicable laws, not only in our operations but also for our products.
Human Capital
We take pride in, and believe our success depends on, attracting and retaining leading talent in the industry based on a culture-fit approach. From our inception, NetApp has worked to build a model company and has embraced a culture of openness and trust. Our employees are supported and encouraged to be innovative, and we communicate openly and transparently so that employees can focus on critical and impactful work that ties directly to our business strategy. We continue to invest in our global workforce to support diversity and inclusion and to support our employees’ well-being and development.
Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging
We believe diversity, inclusion and belonging leads to more innovation, better access to talent and improved business outcomes. Our strategies are intended to increase the demographic and cognitive diversity of our employee population, promote a culture of inclusion and to leverage such diversity to achieve business results. For more information about our commitment to diversity, inclusion and belonging, go to the “Diversity Inclusion and Belonging” section of our website.
Benefits, Wellbeing and Engagement
Our healthcare options offer competitive, comprehensive coverage for our employees and their families, including:
National medical plans,
Regional medical plans,
Expert advice from world-renowned doctors through our medical second opinion program,
National dental plans,
National vision plans with two levels of coverage to choose from and a
Robust wellness program.
Insurance and income protection. We provide life, accidental death and dismemberment and disability insurance programs. For additional peace of mind, we also offer supplemental insurance for our employees and their dependents.
Financial and savings programs. We offer flexible spending accounts, an employee stock purchase plan and a competitive 401(k) retirement plan with a company match. Our 401(k) plan gives employees more options to maximize retirement savings with pre-tax, Roth and after-tax contributions. We help our employees prepare for retirement by capitalizing on their total compensation and helping them save.
Flexible Work. We offer a flexible work program (Thrive Everywhere) that allows employees, in consultation with their managers and teams, flexibility around where, when and how work is performed to deliver business outcomes, understanding that certain roles may be tied to specific locations or require an in-office presence due to business needs and job responsibilities, while others may be primarily virtual.
Employee Wellbeing. We provide a wide range of wellbeing programs and tools to ensure employees and their families have the resources they need when they need them. We offer emotional wellbeing resources and programs such as back-up child and elder care, student debt repayment, educational assistance, and legal services for employees and their dependents. NetApp also offers a variety of time-off programs to help support our employees who need time-off. Employees also have access to discounts and fitness centers.
Engagement. Our Thrive Everywhere program is designed to help employees grow, develop and succeed at NetApp by encouraging an open and interactive culture, where individual needs are recognized and met, and Company goals are supported. For employees, growth goals are tied to corporate objectives and key results to ensure that employees are progressing and are supported by management teams. Managers are encouraged to set aside time each quarter to conduct a two-way conversation with each team member to offer feedback, guidance and support on goals, priorities and career development. The Company also conducts surveys that gauge employee sentiment in areas like cross-functional collaboration, manager performance and inclusivity and create action plans to address concerns and amplify opportunities.
Giving Back. The NetApp Serves Program supports how our employees want to make a difference in the world. In 2022, more than 3,160 NetApp employees donated over 42,600 hours to serve their communities and make an impact around the world. The NetApp Serves Program encourages employees to volunteer through individual, team or company efforts.
Board Oversight of Human Capital Management
Our Board of Directors plays an active role in overseeing the Company's human capital management strategy and programs. Our Talent and Compensation Committee provides oversight of our talent strategy and key programs related to corporate culture, workforce diversity and inclusion, talent acquisition, engagement, development and retention.
Employees
As of April 28, 2023, we had approximately 12,000 employees worldwide. None of our employees are represented by a labor union and we consider relations with our employees to be good.
Please visit our website for more detailed information regarding our human capital programs and initiatives. Nothing on our website shall be deemed incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Information About Our Executive Officers
Our executive officers and their ages as of June 10, 2023, were as follows:
| Name | Age | Position |
| George Kurian | 56 | Chief Executive Officer |
| César Cernuda | 51 | President |
| Michael J. Berry | 60 | Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer |
| Harvinder S. Bhela | 51 | Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer |
| Elizabeth M. O'Callahan | 54 | Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, and Corporate Secretary |
George Kurian is the chief executive officer of NetApp, a position he has held since June 1, 2015. He joined our Board of Directors in June 2015. From September 2013 to May 2015, he was executive vice president of product operations, overseeing all aspects of technology strategy, product and solutions development across our portfolio. Mr. Kurian joined NetApp in April 2011 as the senior vice president of the storage solutions group and was appointed to senior vice president of the Data ONTAP group in December 2011. Prior to joining NetApp, Mr. Kurian held several positions with Cisco Systems from 2002 to 2011, including vice president and general manager of the application networking and switching technology group. Additional roles include vice president of product management and strategy at Akamai Technologies from 1999 to 2002, as well as a management consultant at McKinsey and Company and a leader on the software engineering and product management teams at Oracle Corporation. Mr. Kurian is a board member at Cigna Corporation, a global health services company, and holds a BS degree in electrical engineering from Princeton University and an MBA degree from Stanford University.
César Cernuda came to NetApp in July 2020 as president and is responsible for leading the Company’s global go-to-market organization spanning sales, marketing, services, support, and customer success. Mr. Cernuda joined NetApp after a long career at Microsoft that included various leadership roles. Mr. Cernuda is non-executive director and chairman of the ESG committee at Gestamp, an international group dedicated to automotive components. He is also on the advisory boards of Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business and the IESE Business School – University of Navarra. Mr. Cernuda is a graduate of the Harvard Business School Executive Leadership Program and the Program for Management Development at IESE Business School – University of Navarra, and he also completed the Leading Sustainable Corporations Programme at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from ESIC Business & Marketing School.
Michael J. Berry joined NetApp in March 2020 as executive vice president and chief financial officer, overseeing the worldwide finance, investor relations, security and IT organizations. Mr. Berry has served as a chief financial officer for 16 years in both public and private companies including McAfee, FireEye, Informatica, and SolarWinds. Most recently he was executive vice president and chief financial officer at McAfee where he was responsible for all aspects of finance, including financial planning, accounting, tax and treasury, as well as operations and shared services. Mr. Berry is a board member of Rapid7 and Certinia, holding the chair of the audit committee position at each company. Mr. Berry holds a BS degree in finance from Augsburg University and an MBA degree in finance from the University of St. Thomas.
Harvinder S. Bhela joined NetApp in January 2022 as executive vice president and chief product officer. He is responsible for leading NetApp’s product and engineering teams and building our storage and data services products. Before joining NetApp, Mr. Bhela spent 25 years at Microsoft where he held multiple executive leadership positions. Most recently he served as corporate vice president of the Microsoft 365 Security, Compliance and Management business. Mr. Bhela holds a Bachelor of Engineering from the University of Mumbai and a Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota.
Elizabeth M. O’Callahan was appointed executive vice president, chief legal officer, and corporate secretary in January 2022. Ms. O’Callahan joined NetApp in 2013, and prior to her appointment as chief legal officer, Ms. O’Callahan served as senior vice president and general counsel from May 2021 to December 2021, as vice president and deputy general counsel from May 2020 to April 2021, and as vice president, corporate legal from October 2013 to April 2020. Ms. O’Callahan has over 20 years of experience advising technology companies on a variety of matters, including corporate governance, securities law, mergers and acquisitions, capital markets transactions, corporate compliance and ethics, data privacy, intellectual property, and litigation. Before joining NetApp, Ms. O’Callahan served in a senior legal role at Xilinx (since acquired by AMD). She began her legal career in private practice in Silicon Valley specializing in corporate law and business litigation. Ms. O’Callahan holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Los Angeles and a J.D. from Santa Clara University.
Additional Information
Our internet address is www.netapp.com. We make available through our internet website our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, amendments to those reports and other documents filed or furnished pursuant to the Exchange Act of 1934, as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such materials with, or furnish them to, the SEC.
The SEC maintains an internet site (www.sec.gov) that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC.
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