The cloud computing services have majorly developed in the past few years. Many Indian start-ups have also been emerging. But, more importantly, Indians are acquiring powerful positions in many top tech companies around the world. One of the most established Indian, George Kurian is the current CEO of the company, NetApp.
NetApp is a California based company founded in 1992. The company’s main products are cloud computing, cloud storage, and data management. David Hitz, James Lau, and Michael Malcolm founded the company twenty-eight years ago. In 2015, George Kurian became the CEO of the company.
About the Founders
David went to Annandale High School but he dropped out. Becoming a Silicon Valley icon or establishing a billion-dollar company, none was present in the bucket list of David. But, somehow he became the founder of one of the best companies in the industry of cloud computing.
After graduating from Princeton University, David started working at MIPS Technologies. David’s main role in the companies was as a Software Engineer. In April 1992, he co-founded NetApp and became the Executive VP of Engineering. In 2000, David became the Chairman of the Hitz Foundation.
James went to City College of San Francisco and Heald College- San Francisco. He worked at HP Enterprise Services for more than thirteen years. Currently, he is the System Engineer of NetApp.
Early History
In 1992, when the company was founded it was named Network Appliance, Inc. After a couple of years, the company received venture capital funding from Sequoia Capital. Within three years of its establishment, that is, in 1995 the company filed its first IPO. The company started growing rapidly from the very beginning.
Unexpected Success
In 1997, the company acquired Internet Middleware for $10.5 million. The company stood strong during the time of dot-cot burst and emerged out of it even stronger. A lot of companies suffered huge losses during this boom and a few were even dissolved. But, from 1999 through 2001, NetApp’s annual revenue turned up to $1 billion.
The Key to Success
With the evolution of the start-up culture throughout the world and especially India, criticism arises simultaneously. The most important question is whether a founder should step down and give control to the young entrepreneurs of today.
David, in one of his interviews, said that it is not about the 90s founders or current generation. When a company is built from scratch there might be times when the founders only focus on the remaining products. They don’t consider expanding harms the future of the company. We all know evolution is the key to survival. And, that’s the reason NetApp is still on track.
When the vision of a founder is limited they are expected to step down. But, it doesn’t necessarily mean all the founders will have limited vision.
Struggling Moments
David said there were two moments where they needed to hold their breath and be patient. First, when the first CEO of the company stepped down. David said he has the best management styles in the company. But, once the company started expanding with a lot of managers reporting to each other, he didn’t enjoy it anymore. Eventually, he moved to another company.
Well, the company might have survived the dot-com burst but it suffered major losses. During 2000, the price of the company’s stock fell from $150 to $10. And, that’s when he realized he should expand its territory in terms of products.
Success and Acquisitions
In 2004, NetApp acquired Spinnaker Networks for $300 million. The next year, NetApp acquired Alacritus for $11 million. In this year, the company also acquired Decru for security storage systems. The following years witnessed the acquisition of Topio, Onaro, Bycast, Akkori, Engenio and many more.
NetApp under George Kurian
George after joining the company has focused mainly on the new trends and products. He, in an interview, said that the product revenue has been increasing rapidly especially for the new products. The Asian market has also grown well in the last couple of years. Though the company is having a relatively small market share in Asia, it is capable of replacing some bigger companies.
The three biggest markets of NetApp are the UK, France, and Germany. NetApp’s latest acquisition was Cognigo.
Annasha Dey is an NIT student, who apart from studying engineering is also a content writer. She has a great interest in photography, writing, reading novels, and travelling as well. She is a foodie who loves socializing and hanging out with her friends. She is also a trained Kathak dancer and a big fashion enthusiast. Dey also loves watching TV series, which includes F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and Big Bang Theory. To be a better writer she prefers to read more