NetApp sings partner praises after storming end to fiscal year

NetApp CEO Tom Georgens has been singing the channel's praises on a conference call to mark the storage vendor's fourth quarter numbers, saying indirect sales now total 75 per cent of total revenues.

"Our reference to build the most diversified channels to market continued to have significant impact on the business," said Georgens.

"Our distribution partners, Arrow and Avnet, grew 39 per cent year-over-year to 31 per cent of our total business. 

"Our business with Fujitsu finished the year strongly with 18 per cent growth over last Q4, and our newly-acquired Engenio business expands and creates new OEM partnerships," continued Georgens.

The CEO also had good words to say about his relationships with Dell and IBM, as well as Alliance partners such as Accenture, and NetApp's collaboration with Cisco and VMware.

In a quarter that saw a "very aggressive" pricing environment, NetApp turned in total sales of $1.428bn (£873m), up 21 per cent year-on-year, putting an "exclamation point" on a strong fiscal 2011.

Full-year sales rose 30% over 2010, hitting $5.123bn.

GAAP net income for the three months to 29 April was $160.6m, up 10.6 per cent year-on-year, and full year profits were $673.1m, up 68 per cent.