NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) recently rolled out AFF C190 cloud-capable all-flash storage solution.
The “entry-level” storage solution is reportedly priced under $20,000 making it affordable for small organizations to digitally transform cloud-based IT infrastructure. Notably, the latest offering is “only available for purchase” through the company’s channel partners.
NetApp AFF C190 flash storage solution provides flexibility to the enterprises in running complex business application workloads, file systems and virtual machines, among others.
The customers can leverage the solution to seamlessly manage both block and file data, and consolidate workloads to accelerate business processes.
With an aim to empower customers with data security and avert data loss, AFF C190 also provides robust data protection capabilities which include data encryption.
Cloud Storage Capabilities: A Key Catalyst
With the latest offering, NetApp aims to assist even the smaller companies in managing their business in an organized manner across hybrid multiple cloud platforms.
In this regard, AFF C190 system connects to the prominent public clouds and provides backup services, which helps companies to run their businesses with ease.
Furthermore, AFF C190 is enabled to leverage the capabilities of NetApp ONTAP data management software. As a result, companies can access “enterprise-class data services” to accelerate connectivity to the cloud and make storage efficient and secure.
We believe the robust features will favor adoption rate, in turn bolstering NetApp’s financial performance in the days ahead. The company’s expertise in the flash array market is aiding its popularity in storage area network (SAN) and converged infrastructure markets.
Notably, in the last reported quarter, the company’s all-flash array business surged 11% on a year-over-year basis. Its annualized net revenue run rate was $2.7 billion. The cloud data services recorded a run-rate of $51 million.
What Investors Should Know?
NetApp stock has returned 3.7% on a year-to date basis, slightly better than the industry’s rally of 2.7%.
The company’s transition to data fabric strategy (a software-defined approach to data management) is expanding business opportunities. Further, the company’s increased momentum of its HCI and expanded new cloud partnerships favor growth prospects.
The affordable pricing of AFF C190 system is expected to aid the company expand presence in storage market significantly against all-flash players including Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) .
In fact, per IDC data on first quarter of 2019, NetApp was the third leading company in the enterprise storage systems market with 6.7% share which improved 0.5% year over year, trailing only Dell and HPE. Meanwhile, Pure Storage came in sixth position with market share of 2.2%.
Moreover, per recent IDC estimates, the global datasphere will grow to 175 zettabytes (that is a trillion gigabytes) by 2025, from 33 zettabytes in 2018. The high performance and low latency features of flash-storage make it the ideal storage technology to harness this data explosion.
Notably, per MarketsandMarkets data, all-flash array market is projected to hit $17.8 billion by 2023 from $5.9 billion in 2018, at a CAGR of 24.53%. Consequently, this favors the prospects of NetApp’s latest solutions in the longer haul.
The aforementioned projections are expected to reinforce investors’ confidence in NetApp’s stock, which currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Key Picks
A few better-ranked stocks worth considering in the broader sector are Rosetta Stone Inc. (NYSE:RST) and j2 Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:JCOM) , both sporting Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Long-term earnings growth rate for Rosetta Stone and j2 Global is pegged at 12.5% and 8%, respectively.
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NetApp, Inc. (NTAP): Free Stock Analysis Report
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