US-based hybrid cloud storage and data management company NetApp Inc. wants to help its customers build better data centres and accelerate the adoption of cloud infrastructure with its latest hire.
The company has appointed Brad Anderson as the senior vice president (SVP) and general manager of its newly created cloud infrastructure business unit. Anderson, a NetApp outsider, will report directly to CEO George Kurian and will be responsible for driving the company’s cloud strategy and its execution.
He will oversee NetApp’s portfolio of cloud infrastructure offerings, including converged infrastructure (CI) solutions like FlexPod, hyper converged infrastructure (HCI), NetApp SolidFire all-flash arrays, and NetApp StorageGRID object-based storage.
“I am excited to join NetApp, a market-leading company that’s well positioned to help customers accelerate their digital transformation and unleash the power of their data,” Anderson says in a Jan. 17 press release. “NetApp’s unified portfolio of CI and HCI solutions addresses the needs of diverse customers as they build cloud-architected data centers for next-generation applications.”
Anderson is a 20-year enterprise infrastructure sector veteran. He leaves his role as president and COO of Gravitant, a cloud services brokerage company that was bought by IBM in late 2015. Previously, he was also the president of Dell’s enterprise products group from 2005 to 2012, and general manager and SVP of HP Compaq’s industry standard servers unit from 1996 to 2005.
On LinkedIn, Anderson adds that he joins NetApp at “a remarkable time in its history.” He mentions that the company’s culture, transformational vision, and accelerated innovation make this an exciting time for him.
In the announcement, CEO Kurian had nothing but good things to say about Anderson, explaining that he has the leadership experience NetApp needs to expand its cloud infrastructure business.
“Brad understands how to focus an organization to evolve rapidly in response to a dynamic market and has a track record of turning multiple emerging products into multimillion- and billion-dollar businesses,” Kurian points out. “Bringing Brad on board is further proof of our commitment to expanding our leadership talent and capabilities. It also demonstrates to the industry our serious commitment to establishing a leadership role in helping customers build their next-generation data centers.”
