s & p 500 component industry storage device founded 1992 ; 24 years ago 1992 founder david hitz james lau michael malcolm headquarters 495 east java drive sunnyvale california united states area served worldwide key people george kurian ceo mike nevens chairman of the board products data storage hardware and software revenue 5.54 billion 2016 1 operating income 348 million 2016 1 net income 229 million 2016 1 total assets 10.03 billion 2016 1 total equity 2.88 billion 2016 1 number of employees 10 700 2016 2 website www.netapp.com netapp inc. is an american multinational storage and data management company headquartered in sunnyvale california . it is a member of the nasdaq 100 3 and has ranked in the fortune 500 since 2012 . 4 founded in 1992 5 with an ipo in 1995 2 netapp offers software systems and services to manage and store data including its proprietary data ontap operating system . 6 contents 1 history 2 competition 3 products 4 reception 4.1 controversy 4.1.1 syrian surveillance 4.1.2 legal dispute with sun microsystems 4.2 accolades 4.2.1 work environment 5 see also 6 references 7 further reading 8 external links history edit netapp headquarters in sunnyvale california netapp was founded in 1992 by david hitz james lau 7 and michael malcolm . 5 8 at the time its major competitor was auspex systems . in 1994 netapp received venture capital funding from sequoia capital . 9 it had its initial public offering in 1995 . netapp thrived in the internet bubble years of the mid 1990s to 2001 during which the company grew to 1 billion in annual revenue . after the bubble burst netapp s revenues quickly declined to 800 million in its fiscal year 2002 . since then the company s revenue has steadily climbed . in 2006 netapp sold the netcache product line to blue coat systems . in 2014 netapp acquired riverbed technology s steelstore line of data backup and protection products 10 which it later renamed as altavault . 11 on june 1 2015 tom georgens stepped down as ceo and was replaced by george kurian . 12 13 in december 2015 netapp acquired flash storage vendor solidfire for 870 million . 14 competition edit netapp competes in the data storage devices industry . 15 in 2009 netapp ranked second in market capitalization in its industry behind emc corporation and ahead of seagate technology western digital brocade imation and quantum . 16 in total revenue of 2009 netapp ranked behind emc seagate western digital and ahead of imation brocade xyratex and hutchinson technology . 17 according to a 2014 idc report netapp ranked second in the network storage industry big 5 s list behind emc dell and ahead of ibm hp and hitachi . 18 products edit main article netapp filer netapp fas3240 second from bottom with three ds4243 shelves on top the line of netapp filers has served as the company s flagship product from the very beginning . a filer is a type of disk storage device which owns and controls a filesystem and presents files and directories to hosts over the network . this scheme is sometimes called network attached storage as opposed to the block storage which major storage vendors like ibm emc corporation and hitachi data systems have traditionally provided . netapp s filers initially used nfs and smb protocols based on standard local area networks lans whereas block storage consolidation required storage area networks sans implemented with the fibre channel fc protocol . in 2002 in an attempt to increase market share netapp added block storage access as well . as of 2016 update netapp systems support it via fc protocol the iscsi protocol and the emerging fibre channel over ethernet fcoe protocol . the filers use netapp s proprietary operating system called data ontap which includes code from berkeley net 2 bsd unix spinnaker networks technology and other operating systems . 19 data ontap originally only supported nfs but later added support for smb iscsi and fibre channel including fibre channel over ethernet . in june 16 2006 20 netapp provided two variants of data ontap . data ontap 7g and a nearly complete rewrite 19 called data ontap gx based upon grid technology acquired from spinnaker networks . in 2010 these software product lines merged into one os data ontap 8 which folded data ontap 7g onto the data ontap gx cluster platform . data ontap 8 has two distinct operating modes 7 mode and cluster mode . netapp s oncommand management software controls and automates data storage . 21 reception edit controversy edit syrian surveillance edit in november 2011 during the 2011 syrian uprising netapp was named as one of several companies whose products were being used in the syrian government crackdown . the equipment was allegedly sold to the syrians by an authorized netapp reseller . 22 on april 7 2014 netapp was notified by the us department of commerce that it had completed its review of this matter and determined that netapp had not violated the u.s. export laws and that the file on the matter had been closed . 23 legal dispute with sun microsystems edit in september 2007 netapp started proceedings against sun microsystems claiming that the zfs file system developed by sun infringed its patents . 24 the following month sun announced plans to countersue based on alleged misuse by netapp of sun s own patented technology . 25 several of netapp s patent claims were rejected on the basis of prior art after re examination by the united states patent and trademark office . 26 on september 9 2010 netapp announced an agreement with oracle corporation the new owner of sun microsystems to dismiss the suits . 27 accolades edit netapp was listed amongst silicon valley top 25 corporate philanthropists in 2013 . 28 work environment edit netapp s work environment has received acknowledgement . the company ranked first on fortune s 100 best companies to work for in 2009 29 and fifth in 2010 . 30 this is the seventh consecutive year netapp has earned a spot on the list placing in the top 50 each time . netapp also earned top honors in the best companies to work for in research triangle park competition in 2006 . other previous distinctions include making computerworld s top 100 places to work in it 2005 best places to work in the greater bay area in 2006 by the san francisco business times and the silicon valley san jose business journal and the 8th spot on the 2006 list of best workplaces in germany by capital magazine . netapp canada was ranked 2 by the great place to work institute 31 on the 75 best workplaces list for 2010 . it was third in the 25 best global companies to work for list by great place to work institute in 2011 . 32 netapp was ranked third in great place to work s 2013 world s best multinational workplaces . 33 it received 41 on the 2013 best places to work 34 and 2013 work life balance award by glassdoor . 35 in 2014 netapp ranked 2 on business insider s list of 20 most flexible employers in america . 36 see also edit san francisco bay area portal companies portal netapp filer write anywhere file layout wafl used in netapp systems team netapp references edit a b c d e netapp reports fourth quarter and fiscal year 2015 results pdf . netapp . 24 april 2015 . retrieved 28 march 2016 . a b faqs . netapp . retrieved 25 august 2016 . historical data nasdaq 100 index . nasdaq.com . retrieved 31 august 2015 . netapp . fortune 500 . time inc. retrieved 31 august 2015 . a b corporate brief . netapp . retrieved september 27 2013 . company snapshot pdf . netapp . retrieved 1 september 2015 . executive bios . netapp . 2012 . retrieved 2012 04 13 . michael malcolm resigns as chairman of the board of cacheflow to focus on new start up opportunity . business wire . 13 november 2000 . retrieved 2009 04 14 . sequoia capital funds netapp . gagliordi natalie 27 october 2014 . netapp buys riverbed technology s steelstore business . zdnet . retrieved 22 march 2016 . adshead antony 18 may 2015 . netapp launches altavault hybrid cloud backup appliance family . computerweekly . retrieved 22 march 2016 . netapp announces changes to executive leadership team and board of directors . netapp . 2015 06 01 . retrieved 2015 06 01 . netapp announces changes to executive leadership team and board of directors . investing.com . 2015 06 01 . retrieved 2015 06 02 . novet jordan 21 december 2015 . netapp acquires flash storage vendor solidfire for 870m . venturebeat . retrieved 22 march 2016 . industry center data storage devices overview . yahoo finance . 2009 . retrieved 2009 04 14 . industry center data storage devices leaders in market capitalization . yahoo finance . 2009 . retrieved 2009 04 14 . industry center data storage devices leaders in total revenue ttm . yahoo finance . 2009 . retrieved 2009 04 14 . how emc lines up against netapp hp ibm hitachi in storage systems market . forbes . a b is data ontap based on unix . 2007 04 27 . retrieved 2016 06 11 . dead link ontap gx past and future . 2006 06 16 . archived from the original on july 1 2016 . retrieved july 1 2016 . cs1 maint unfit url link raj pethuru ; raman anupama ; nagaraj dhivya ; duggirala siddhartha 2015 . high performance big data analytics computing systems and approaches . computer communications and networks . springer . p. 242 . isbn 9783319207445 . retrieved 2016 02 09 . netapp oncommand management software and cisco unified computing system manager tools help you optimize your server and network environment handling hundreds of resources for thousands of virtual machines . oncommand controls and automates your data storage infrastructure . companies that aid syria crackdown deserve sanctions slap view . businessweek . 2011 11 14 . retrieved 2012 03 25 . netapp response to allegations of potential use of equipment in syria . netapp . 2014 04 09 . retrieved 2014 05 23 . netapp files patent suit against sun . september 5 2007 . sun plans to countersue netapp . october 24 2007 . netapp patent lawsuit against zfs open source technology . archived from the original on 2010 11 09 . retrieved august 13 2010 . oracle netapp agree to settle zfs patent litigation . september 10 2010 . retrieved september 10 2010 . corporate philanthropy meet silicon valley s 25 most generous companies . levering robert ; moskowitz milton february 2 2009 . 100 best companies to work for . fortune . 159 2 78 . retrieved february 3 2009 . 100 best companies to work for 2010 . fortune maganize . cnn . february 8 2010 . retrieved july 9 2010 . 2011 best workplaces in canada . greatplacetowork.ca . retrieved 2012 03 25 . 25 best global companies to work for . great place to work institute . cnn . october 28 2011 . 2013 world s best multinational . best places to work . top 25 companies for work life balance . glassdoor.com . retrieved 2015 10 11 . stanger melissa 2014 04 23 . the 20 most flexible employers in america . businessinsider.com . business insider . retrieved 2015 10 11 . further reading edit serving up storage solutions network appliance ceo dan warmenhoven puts data in its place . communication news 22 24 . august 2001 . issn 0010 3632 . archived from the original on 2001 08 09 . external links edit netapp v t e companies of the nasdaq 100 index 21st century fox activision blizzard adobe systems akamai technologies alexion pharmaceuticals alphabet amazon.com american airlines group amgen analog