By Umesh Manathkar, CIO

Digital transformations mean different things to different enterprises. For NetApp IT, digital transformation means reacting to company changes – we are not just a storage and hardware company anymore – and a changing business landscape. Our consumers are evolving. How we deliver products is changing. Processes are revamped.

They all feed into how we approach our own digital transformation.

Change is constant, but it does not have to be scary. Our defined approach to digital transformation brings clarity to the process and guides our decision-making to ensure we are fully meeting the needs of the organization.

The NetApp IT strategy for our digital transformation

So, where do you start turning needs into an IT strategy? We started by evaluating all our applications and placing them into one of four buckets:

– Tolerate – No incremental investment required

– Eliminate – Investment required to sunset the application and free up resources

– Invest-Strategic – Investment required to deploy new capabilities and/or enhance current functionality

– Migrate – Investment required to migrate functionality to a different application

For the latter two buckets, we defaulted to asking how many could move to the cloud, be it Software as a Service, Infrastructure as a Service, or Platform as a Service. From there, we mapped all applications to determine what can stay on-premises and what can go to the cloud – and once in the cloud, is it in our private cloud or a hyperscaler.

Here, our transformation journey mapped to our IT strategy.

An IT strategy based in the cloud

The hybrid cloud is paramount to our success. It enables us to best serve the company and give developers and engineers what they need, when they need it. It was an easy decision for us.

Drive the business

Our internal processes are evolving to keep up with the speed of business. To continue to support development, we must leverage new capabilities and out-of-the-box solutions that get us going – quickly. SaaS solutions minimize the need for customization and get us to market faster.

Advanced capabilities

Some modern technologies, like AI, machine learning, or advanced analytics, are only available in the cloud. Using these systems is necessary to get the most out of our IT spend.

Efficiencies

Having spending based on consumption and that spans all geographies means that we can support a global workforce, without costs that spiral out of control.

We have an end-state goal of having 80 percent of our applications in the cloud and 20 percent on-prem.

How NetApp powers our own transformation

The beauty of our transformation is in how we are using our own products to make it happen. Our strategy is a bold one and it cannot happen without NetApp products.

FlexPod helps power our applications. ONTAP manages our storage across all environments. CloudCheckr optimizes cloud operations. SnapVault ensures data backup. We use dozens of NetApp solutions across our hybrid cloud environment.

This graphic shows some of them.

This journey is one that will never be completed, only improved. We are confident in our commitment to the cloud and how it will enable NetApp to innovate now and in the future. However, with a clear strategy and the tools to execute, we will continue to deliver our best to the enterprise, who deliver their best to our customers.

I will be taking a deep dive into our digital transformation at NetApp INSIGHT 2022, our digital conference taking place November 1 – 3. I encourage you to check out my session, “How NetApp IT uses NetApp to Fuel a Cloud-Driven Transformation.”