Item 1. Business

Overview

NetApp, Inc. (NetApp, we, us, or the Company) helps customers make their data infrastructure more seamless, more dynamic, and higher performing. We were incorporated in 1992 and are headquartered in San Jose, California. Building on over three decades of innovation, we combine unified data storage, integrated data services, and CloudOps solutions to make data infrastructure intelligent. Our broad portfolio addresses customer priorities: modernizing legacy infrastructure, improving resiliency against ransomware attacks, and building scalable, high-performance data pipelines for artificial intelligence (AI) workloads. With NetApp, customers can better leverage their data to accelerate innovation, improve operations, and drive competitive advantage. Our unified data storage delivers flexibility to our customers, enabling them to simply and consistently store any data type and power any workload. As the only enterprise-grade storage service natively embedded in the world’s largest clouds, we power data across AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. Our integrated data services enable active data management, security, protection, governance, and sustainability. Finally, our CloudOps solutions enable adaptive operations across infrastructure, applications, and teams.Together, these capabilities comprise an intelligent data infrastructure that delivers: •Operational simplicity, so customers can manage complex workloads and eliminate infrastructure silos across apps, data, and clouds.•Cyber resilience and security, so businesses stay up and running with built-in ransomware protection, rapid recovery, and infrastructure observability. •AI innovation, embedding intelligence into data infrastructure to enable AI workloads that deliver new levels of productivity and innovation.•Infrastructure savings, so on-premises and cloud infrastructure spend go further with high-efficiency data storage and automated capacity and cloud cost management.•Sustainability, achieved via energy-efficient technologies, tiering, and analytics.•Scalability and agility to maximize infrastructure and application scalability and team responsiveness.

Product, Solutions and Services Portfolio

Our operations are organized into two segments: Hybrid Cloud and Public Cloud.

Hybrid Cloud

Hybrid Cloud offers a unified data storage portfolio of storage management and infrastructure solutions that help customers modernize their data centers. With the power of on-premises, private cloud and public cloud capabilities to assist customers in modernizing applications with a single solution that supports file, block, and object storage, we deliver a data infrastructure solution for all environments and workloads. Our Hybrid Cloud portfolio supports structured and unstructured data with unified storage optimized for flash, disk, and cloud storage to handle data-intensive workloads and applications. Hybrid Cloud is composed of software, hardware, and related support, as well as professional and other services.

Data management software

NetApp ONTAP software is our foundational technology that underpins NetApp's critical storage solutions in the on-premises data center and in private and public clouds. ONTAP includes various data management and protection features and capabilities, including automatic ransomware protection against cyber-attacks, built-in data transport features, and storage efficiency capabilities. ONTAP provides the flexibility to design and deploy a storage environment across the broadest range of architectures – from on-premises to hybrid, private, and public clouds. It can be used in NAS, SAN, object environments, and software-defined storage (SDS) situations.Data integrity, safety, and business continuity are at the heart of any company’s data center. With the extensive software tools and utilities delivered in ONTAP One, our all-in-one software license, customers can realize their business continuity goals with time, costs, and personnel savings. With NetApp Snapshot, customers can create and manage point-in-time file system copies with no performance impact and minimal storage consumption. This is important for continuous data protection of information in read-only, static, and immutable form. NetApp SnapCenter Backup Management software is designed to deliver high-performance backup and recovery for database and application workloads hosted on ONTAP storage. NetApp SnapMirror Data Replication software can replicate data at high speeds across environments. SnapMirror delivers robust data management capabilities for virtualization, protecting critical data while providing the flexibility to move data between locations and storage tiers, including cloud service providers. NetApp SnapLock Data Compliance software delivers high-performance disk-based data permanence for HDD and SSD deployments. NetApp Astra is a fully managed application-aware data management service built for emerging Kubernetes workloads container infrastructures. Astra allows organizations to protect, recover, and move applications deployed on Kubernetes with no software to download, install, manage, or upgrade.

Storage infrastructure

NetApp All-Flash FAS (AFF A-Series) is a scale-out platform built for virtualized environments, combining low-latency performance via flash memory (also known as a solid-state storage disk) with best-in-class data management, built-in efficiencies, integrated data protection, multiprotocol support, and nondisruptive operations; cloud and on-premises. AFF A-Series, powered by ONTAP, allows customers to connect to clouds for more data services, data tiering, caching, and disaster recovery. The AFF A-Series has a portfolio of products designed for multiple markets and price/performance considerations, from smaller channel commercial market offerings to large-scale, global enterprises.NetApp All-Flash FAS with capacity flash (AFF C-Series) provides customers capacity flash performance and affordability, so that customers do not need to make compromises on price or performance. AFF C-Series arrays, powered by ONTAP, are sustainable, scalable, and secure solutions for Tier 1 and Tier 2 applications. The AFF C-Series is ideal for transitioning from hybrid/HDD to all-flash storage; running non-latency sensitive VMware database applications and file environments; and providing a solution for secondary storage targets for disaster recovery, backup, and tiering. NetApp All-Flash SAN Array (ASA A-Series & C-Series) is NetApp’s modern block storage with best-in-class speed, efficiency, security, sustainability, and cloud integration to accelerate virtual machines and databases. ASA arrays are also powered by NetApp ONTAP but optimized simply for SAN workloads. The ASA includes a 99.9999% guaranteed uptime and guaranteed 4:1 storage efficiency.NetApp Fabric Attached Storage (FAS) series are high-volume, high-capacity data storage devices powered by NetApp ONTAP. NetApp FAS Storage Arrays provide customers with a balance of performance and capacity running disk drives or hybrid-flash configurations. FAS systems are suitable for secondary storage targets for disaster recovery, backup, and tiering.NetApp E/EF series is built for dedicated, high-bandwidth applications that need simple, fast SAN storage with enterprise-grade reliability. The E-Series is available as a hybrid-flash platform, while the EF-Series is all-flash. Built on the SANtricity storage operating system, the E/EF-Series storage appliances are designed for performance-sensitive workloads like real-time analytics, high-performance computing, and databases. NetApp StorageGRID is a software-defined object storage solution for large archives, media repositories, and web data stores. Using the industry-standard object APIs like the Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), StorageGRID is provided as a NetApp-branded storage solution and as a software-defined solution on third-party hardware.

Data management software

NetApp ONTAP software is our foundational technology that underpins NetApp's critical storage solutions in the on-premises data center and in private and public clouds. ONTAP includes various data management and protection features and capabilities, including automatic ransomware protection against cyber-attacks, built-in data transport features, and storage efficiency capabilities. ONTAP provides the flexibility to design and deploy a storage environment across the broadest range of architectures – from on-premises to hybrid, private, and public clouds. It can be used in NAS, SAN, object environments, and software-defined storage (SDS) situations.Data integrity, safety, and business continuity are at the heart of any company’s data center. With the extensive software tools and utilities delivered in ONTAP One, our all-in-one software license, customers can realize their business continuity goals with time, costs, and personnel savings. With NetApp Snapshot, customers can create and manage point-in-time file system copies with no performance impact and minimal storage consumption. This is important for continuous data protection of information in read-only, static, and immutable form. NetApp SnapCenter Backup Management software is designed to deliver high-performance backup and recovery for database and application workloads hosted on ONTAP storage. NetApp SnapMirror Data Replication software can replicate data at high speeds across environments. SnapMirror delivers robust data management capabilities for virtualization, protecting critical data while providing the flexibility to move data between locations and storage tiers, including cloud service providers. NetApp SnapLock Data Compliance software delivers high-performance disk-based data permanence for HDD and SSD deployments. NetApp Astra is a fully managed application-aware data management service built for emerging Kubernetes workloads container infrastructures. Astra allows organizations to protect, recover, and move applications deployed on Kubernetes with no software to download, install, manage, or upgrade.

Storage infrastructure

NetApp All-Flash FAS (AFF A-Series) is a scale-out platform built for virtualized environments, combining low-latency performance via flash memory (also known as a solid-state storage disk) with best-in-class data management, built-in efficiencies, integrated data protection, multiprotocol support, and nondisruptive operations; cloud and on-premises. AFF A-Series, powered by ONTAP, allows customers to connect to clouds for more data services, data tiering, caching, and disaster recovery. The AFF A-Series has a portfolio of products designed for multiple markets and price/performance considerations, from smaller channel commercial market offerings to large-scale, global enterprises.NetApp All-Flash FAS with capacity flash (AFF C-Series) provides customers capacity flash performance and affordability, so that customers do not need to make compromises on price or performance. AFF C-Series arrays, powered by ONTAP, are sustainable, scalable, and secure solutions for Tier 1 and Tier 2 applications. The AFF C-Series is ideal for transitioning from hybrid/HDD to all-flash storage; running non-latency sensitive VMware database applications and file environments; and providing a solution for secondary storage targets for disaster recovery, backup, and tiering. NetApp All-Flash SAN Array (ASA A-Series & C-Series) is NetApp’s modern block storage with best-in-class speed, efficiency, security, sustainability, and cloud integration to accelerate virtual machines and databases. ASA arrays are also powered by NetApp ONTAP but optimized simply for SAN workloads. The ASA includes a 99.9999% guaranteed uptime and guaranteed 4:1 storage efficiency.NetApp Fabric Attached Storage (FAS) series are high-volume, high-capacity data storage devices powered by NetApp ONTAP. NetApp FAS Storage Arrays provide customers with a balance of performance and capacity running disk drives or hybrid-flash configurations. FAS systems are suitable for secondary storage targets for disaster recovery, backup, and tiering.NetApp E/EF series is built for dedicated, high-bandwidth applications that need simple, fast SAN storage with enterprise-grade reliability. The E-Series is available as a hybrid-flash platform, while the EF-Series is all-flash. Built on the SANtricity storage operating system, the E/EF-Series storage appliances are designed for performance-sensitive workloads like real-time analytics, high-performance computing, and databases. NetApp StorageGRID is a software-defined object storage solution for large archives, media repositories, and web data stores. Using the industry-standard object APIs like the Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), StorageGRID is provided as a NetApp-branded storage solution and as a software-defined solution on third-party hardware.

Public Cloud

Public Cloud offers a portfolio of products delivered primarily as-a-service, including related support. This portfolio includes cloud storage and CloudOps services. As the only provider of enterprise-grade storage services natively embedded in the world’s largest public cloud providers, NetApp helps organizations harness the power of their data and applications. NetApp’s CloudOps solutions leverage AI to maximize productivity across infrastructure and applications, boost team productivity, and reduce operations costs. These solutions and services are generally available on the leading public clouds, including Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.

Cloud storage

Fully managed cloud storage offerings are available natively on Microsoft Azure as Azure NetApp Files, on AWS as Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP, and on Google Cloud as Google Cloud NetApp Volumes. In addition, NetApp offers NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP on AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure, a cloud-based software for customers who wish to manage their own cloud storage infrastructure. Our cloud storage services are based on the same ONTAP data management software that underpins our storage infrastructure offerings.

Manageability

At the heart of our public cloud storage and data service offerings is NetApp BlueXP. BlueXP is a unified control plane that enables customers to manage their entire data landscape through one single, web-based SaaS-delivered control point. NetApp BlueXP combines storage and data services via its unified control plane to change how hybrid, multicloud environments are managed, optimized, and controlled. An intuitive interface and powerful automation help decrease resource waste, complexity, and the risk of managing diverse environments. It brings customers operational simplicity in a complex world. Within BlueXP are standard and optional capabilities (services) which allow customers to control their data and operations.With BlueXP Sync service, customers can migrate data to the cloud securely and efficiently. Customers can choose where to deploy primary workloads without re-architecting applications or databases. Customers also get a comprehensive, industry-leading portfolio of storage efficiency capabilities. Inline data compression, deduplication, compaction, and cloud tiering (BlueXP Tiering service) work together to reduce storage costs and maximize data storage. NetApp Backup service delivers seamless and cost-effective backup and restore capabilities for protecting and archiving cloud and on-premises data managed by ONTAP. BlueXP Compliance service provides data discovery, mapping, and classification driven by AI algorithms with automated controls and reporting for data privacy regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and more. Lastly, the BlueXP Cache service delivers fast and secure access to data for users by caching active data sets to distributed offices globally.

Cloud Operations services

NetApp Cloud Insights is an infrastructure monitoring tool that gives organizations visibility into their entire infrastructure. It can monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize costs across all resources, including public clouds and private data centers. Working in conjunction with the BlueXP manageability and control plane services, customers can have deep insights into their data operations.Our Spot by NetApp suite of products enables customers to deploy and operate cloud applications reliably and securely in their choice of public clouds while reducing costs and complexity. Combining machine learning, predictive analytics, and cloud automation, the Spot by NetApp platform continuously optimizes cloud infrastructure and operations to deliver scalable, reliable, and secure application infrastructure.Instaclustr provides fully managed open-source databases, pipelines, and workflow applications delivered as a service. Instaclustr helps organizations deliver cloud-native applications at scale by operating and supporting the data infrastructure through its SaaS platform for those designing and building around open-source technologies while not wanting to maintain that infrastructure themselves.

Cloud storage

Fully managed cloud storage offerings are available natively on Microsoft Azure as Azure NetApp Files, on AWS as Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP, and on Google Cloud as Google Cloud NetApp Volumes. In addition, NetApp offers NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP on AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure, a cloud-based software for customers who wish to manage their own cloud storage infrastructure. Our cloud storage services are based on the same ONTAP data management software that underpins our storage infrastructure offerings.

Manageability

At the heart of our public cloud storage and data service offerings is NetApp BlueXP. BlueXP is a unified control plane that enables customers to manage their entire data landscape through one single, web-based SaaS-delivered control point. NetApp BlueXP combines storage and data services via its unified control plane to change how hybrid, multicloud environments are managed, optimized, and controlled. An intuitive interface and powerful automation help decrease resource waste, complexity, and the risk of managing diverse environments. It brings customers operational simplicity in a complex world. Within BlueXP are standard and optional capabilities (services) which allow customers to control their data and operations.With BlueXP Sync service, customers can migrate data to the cloud securely and efficiently. Customers can choose where to deploy primary workloads without re-architecting applications or databases. Customers also get a comprehensive, industry-leading portfolio of storage efficiency capabilities. Inline data compression, deduplication, compaction, and cloud tiering (BlueXP Tiering service) work together to reduce storage costs and maximize data storage. NetApp Backup service delivers seamless and cost-effective backup and restore capabilities for protecting and archiving cloud and on-premises data managed by ONTAP. BlueXP Compliance service provides data discovery, mapping, and classification driven by AI algorithms with automated controls and reporting for data privacy regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and more. Lastly, the BlueXP Cache service delivers fast and secure access to data for users by caching active data sets to distributed offices globally.

Cloud Operations services

NetApp Cloud Insights is an infrastructure monitoring tool that gives organizations visibility into their entire infrastructure. It can monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize costs across all resources, including public clouds and private data centers. Working in conjunction with the BlueXP manageability and control plane services, customers can have deep insights into their data operations.Our Spot by NetApp suite of products enables customers to deploy and operate cloud applications reliably and securely in their choice of public clouds while reducing costs and complexity. Combining machine learning, predictive analytics, and cloud automation, the Spot by NetApp platform continuously optimizes cloud infrastructure and operations to deliver scalable, reliable, and secure application infrastructure.Instaclustr provides fully managed open-source databases, pipelines, and workflow applications delivered as a service. Instaclustr helps organizations deliver cloud-native applications at scale by operating and supporting the data infrastructure through its SaaS platform for those designing and building around open-source technologies while not wanting to maintain that infrastructure themselves.

Professional and Support Services

NetApp and our certified services partners offer a comprehensive portfolio of assessment, design, implementation, migration, and proactive support services to help customers optimize the performance and efficiency of their on-premises and hybrid multicloud storage environments. Our portfolio of offerings includes storage-as-a-service (STaaS), strategic consulting, professional, managed, and support services. •NetApp Keystone is our pay-as-you-grow, STaaS offering that delivers a seamless hybrid cloud experience for those preferring operating expense consumption models to upfront capital expense or leasing. With a unified management console and monthly bill for both on-premises and cloud data storage services, Keystone lets organizations provision, monitor, and even move storage spend across their hybrid cloud environment for financial and operational flexibility. •NetApp strategic consulting services provide executive-level, high-touch consulting engagements to help organizations facilitate the alignment of their business and technology goals. Our proven expertise can help organizations define long-term data fabric strategies and operations models to drive IT initiatives for digital transformation. •NetApp's Professional Services offer specialized expertise to minimize risks and simplify the process of designing, implementing, migrating, and integrating NetApp hybrid cloud solutions. This enables businesses to reap the benefits of new technology investments more quickly. Our highly skilled service experts help ensure secure and optimized environments, delivering consistent, high-quality outcomes that meet customers' expectations from the start.•NetApp Managed Services can optimize the performance and efficiency of your IT infrastructure, whether you have a hybrid cloud or on-premises environment. Our experienced NetApp experts follow a proven methodology and industry best practices to monitor, administer, operate, and optimize your IT environment. This allows your organization's IT staff to focus on driving business initiatives forward, without worrying about the day-to-day management of your IT infrastructure.•NetApp Global Support offers a wide range of solutions, including systems, processes, and personnel, to support uninterrupted operation in complex and critical environments. Our focus is on providing proactive and preemptive technology support to help ensure operational continuity across the NetApp hybrid cloud. We offer personalized support options that provide actionable intelligence to resolve problems faster, minimize downtime, and optimize the performance of the entire NetApp ecosystem.

Sales, Principal Markets, and Distribution Channels

We market and sell our products and services in numerous countries throughout the world. Our sales efforts are organized around the evolving needs of our current and targeted customers, and our marketing initiatives reflect this focus. NetApp uses a multichannel distribution strategy. We sell our products, solutions and services to end-user business customers and service providers through a direct sales force and an ecosystem of partners, including the leading cloud providers. Our marketing is focused on building our brand reputation, creating market awareness, communicating customer advantages and generating demand for our sales force and channel partners.Our diversified customer base spans industry segments and vertical markets such as energy, financial services, government, technology, internet, life sciences, healthcare services, manufacturing, media, entertainment, animation, video postproduction and telecommunications. NetApp focuses primarily on the enterprise storage and data management, cloud storage and cloud operations markets. We design our products to meet the evolving requirements of a hybrid, multicloud world, driven by digital transformation and cloud initiatives.Our partnerships with the industry’s leading cloud, infrastructure, consulting, application, and reseller partners are created with one goal in mind: the success of our customers. Global enterprises, local businesses, and government agencies look to NetApp and our ecosystem of partners to help maximize the business value of their IT and cloud investments.We work with a wide range of partners for our customers, including technology partners, value-added resellers, system integrators, OEMs, service providers and distributors. During fiscal 2024, sales through our indirect channels represented 76% of our net revenues. Our global partner ecosystem is critical to NetApp’s growth and success. We are continually strengthening existing partnerships and investing in new ones to ensure we are meeting the evolving needs of our customers.As of April 26, 2024, our worldwide sales and marketing functions consisted of approximately 5,300 managers, sales representatives and technical support personnel. We have offices in approximately 24 countries. Sales to customers Arrow Electronics, Inc. and TD Synnex Corporation each accounted for 22% of our net revenues, respectively, in fiscal 2024. Information about sales to and accounts receivables from our major customers, segment disclosures, foreign operations and net sales attributable to our geographic regions is included in Note 15 – Segment, Geographic, and Significant Customer Information of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.

Seasonality

We have historically experienced a sequential decline in revenues in the first quarter of our fiscal year, as the sales organization spends time developing new business after higher close rates in the fourth quarter, and because sales to European customers are typically weaker during the summer months. We derive a substantial amount of our revenue in any given quarter from customer orders booked in the same quarter. Customer orders and revenues typically follow intra-quarter seasonality patterns weighted toward the end of the quarter. If recurring services and cloud revenue continue to increase as a percentage of our total revenues, historical seasonal patterns may become less pronounced.

Backlog

We manufacture products based on a combination of specific order requirements and forecasts of our customers’ demand. Orders are generally placed by customers on an as-needed basis. A substantial portion of our products is sold on the basis of standard purchase orders that are cancelable prior to shipment without penalty. In certain circumstances, purchase orders are subject to change with respect to quantity of product or timing of delivery resulting from changes in customer requirements. Our business is characterized by seasonal and intra-quarter variability in demand, as well as short lead times and product delivery schedules. Accordingly, backlog at any given time may not be a meaningful indicator of future revenue.

Manufacturing and Supply Chain

We have outsourced manufacturing operations to third parties located in Fremont, California; San Jose, California; San Antonio, Texas; Guadalajara, Mexico; Schiphol Airport, The Netherlands; Tiszaujvaros, Hungary; Wuxi, China; Taoyuan City, Taiwan; and Singapore. These operations include materials procurement, commodity management, component engineering, test engineering, manufacturing engineering, product assembly, product assurance, quality control, final test, and global logistics. We rely on a limited number of suppliers for materials, as well as several key subcontractors for the production of certain subassemblies and finished systems. We strive to have multiple suppliers qualified to provide critical components where possible and have our products manufactured in a number of locations to mitigate our supply chain risk. Our strategy has been to develop close relationships with our suppliers, maximizing the exchange of critical information and facilitating the implementation of joint quality programs. We use contract manufacturers for the production of major subassemblies and final system configuration. This manufacturing strategy minimizes capital investments and overhead expenditures while creating flexibility for rapid expansion.We are certified to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 certification standards. We have been Tier 2 certified under the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT) program since January 2015.

Research and Development

Our research and development team delivers innovation to help customers create an evolved cloud experience. Our R&D structure allows us to align and accelerate the execution of our strategies and roadmaps across product groups. We leverage our talent and shared IP for cloud- and hybrid-cloud solutions to remain agile to changing market conditions. Our R&D priorities are defined by how we can help customers realize operational simplicity, cyber resilience and security, AI innovation, infrastructure savings and agility, and sustainability. We design our products and services from the ground up with cloud connectivity in mind, including our capabilities for cyber resiliency, tiering, disaster recovery, replication, bursting, and migration.We conduct research and development activities in various locations throughout the world. Total research and development expenses were $1,029 million in fiscal 2024, $956 million in fiscal 2023 and $881 million in fiscal 2022. These costs consist primarily of personnel and related costs incurred to conduct product development activities. Although we develop many of our products internally, we also acquire technology through business combinations or through licensing from third parties when appropriate. We believe that technical leadership is essential to our success, and we expect to continue to commit substantial resources to research and development.

Competition

We operate in an industry in which there are rapid technological advances in hardware, software, and related services offerings. Cloud, digital transformation, and AI initiatives are driving changes in customer and solution requirements.We compete with many companies in the storage and data management markets. Our hybrid cloud solutions primarily compete with legacy IT and storage vendors. Some offer a broad spectrum of products, solutions and services and others offer a more limited set of storage and data-management products, solutions or services. Additionally, public cloud providers offer customers storage as an operating expense which competes with more traditional storage offerings that customers acquire through capital expenditures. We both partner with and compete against cloud providers with our public cloud software and services. Legacy vendors are not often encountered in the cloud storage services market as competitors.We compete with many companies in the cloud operations marketplace, including new companies (startups) and larger software companies who target developers, operations engineering (DevOps) and financial engineering (FinOps). Some companies have single point solutions that compete with one of our services and others are building platforms. Additionally, public cloud providers offer similar services on their own cloud.We face ongoing product and price competition in all areas of our business, including from both branded- and generic-product competitors. Our current and potential competitors may establish cooperative relationships among themselves or with third-parties, including some of our partners. It is possible that new competitors or alliances among competitors might emerge and further increase competitive pressures.We consider our software innovation, cloud integration, and technology partnerships key to our competitive differentiation. We believe our competitive advantage also includes the nature of the relationships we form with our customers and partners worldwide. We strive to deliver an outstanding experience in every interaction we have with our customers and partners through our product, service, and support offerings, which enables us to provide our customers a full range of expertise before, during and after their purchases.

Proprietary Rights

We generally rely on patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret and contract laws to establish and maintain our proprietary rights in our technology, products and services. While our intellectual property rights are important to our success, we believe that our business is not materially dependent on any particular patent, trademark, copyright, license or other individual intellectual property right. We have been granted, or own by assignment, well over two thousand U.S. patents, hundreds of pending U.S. patent applications, and many corresponding patents and patent applications in other countries. From time to time, we may make certain intellectual property available under an open source license. Our primary trademarks are NetApp and the NetApp design logo, which are registered trademarks in the U.S. and in many other countries. In addition, we have trademarks and trademark registrations in the U.S. and other countries covering our various product or service names.We generally enter into confidentiality agreements with our employees, resellers, distributors, customers, and suppliers. In addition, through various licensing arrangements, we receive certain rights to the intellectual property of others. We expect to maintain current licensing arrangements and to secure additional licensing arrangements in the future, as needed and to the extent available on reasonable terms and conditions, to support continued development and sales of our products and services. Some of these licensing arrangements require or may require royalty payments and other licensing fees. The amount of these payments and fees may depend on various factors, including but not limited to the structure of royalty payments; offsetting considerations, if any; and the degree of use of the licensed technology.The industry in which we compete is characterized by rapidly changing technology, a large number of patents, and frequent claims and related litigation regarding intellectual property rights, and we may be exposed to various risks related to such claims or legal proceedings. If we are unable to protect our intellectual property, we may be subject to increased competition that could materially and adversely affect our business operations, financial condition, results of operations and/or cash flows.

Environmental Disclosure

We are committed to the success of our customers and partners, to delivering value to our stockholders, and to positively affecting the communities where our employees work and live. We firmly believe that we can accomplish these objectives concurrently with our commitment to sound environmental management. We are committed to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions; efficient use of natural resources; and minimizing, relative to the growth of the Company, the environmental impacts from our operations, products, and services, as well as complying with laws and regulations related to these areas. We voluntarily measure, monitor, and publicly report our scope 1, scope 2, and scope 3 (partial) greenhouse gas emissions and water impacts to CDP, a global standardized mechanism by which companies report their greenhouse gas emissions and water impacts to customers and institutional investors. We continuously seek to optimize the energy efficiency of our buildings, labs, and data centers; and we have increased our use of renewable energy, especially at our facilities in Bangalore, India and Wichita, Kansas, both of which are powered almost exclusively by renewable energy.At the global, regional and state levels, various laws and regulations have been implemented or are under consideration to mitigate or report on the effects of climate change. Environmental laws are complex and have tended to become more stringent over time. However, it is difficult to anticipate future regulations pertaining to environmental matters and to estimate their impacts on our operations. Based on current information, we believe that our primary risk related to climate change is the risk of increased energy costs. Additionally, we have implemented disaster recovery and business resiliency measures to mitigate the physical risks our facilities, business, and supply chain might face as a consequence of natural disasters or severe weather/climate-related phenomena such as earthquakes, floods, droughts, and other such natural occurrences.We are subject to international, federal, state, and local regulations regarding workplace safety and protection of the environment. Various international, federal, state, and local provisions regulate the use and discharge of certain hazardous materials used in the manufacture of our products. Failure to comply with environmental regulations in the future could cause us to incur substantial costs, subject us to business interruptions or cause customers to cease purchasing from us. We strive to comply with all applicable environmental laws. All of our products meet the applicable requirements of the following European Union (EU) directives: Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH); Energy Related Products (ErP); and Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS). We also comply with the China RoHS directive. We have a global product take-back program and an e-waste scheme to comply with the EU directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations in India.We have maintained an environmental management system since December 2004 that provides the framework for setting, monitoring, and continuously improving our environmental goals and objectives. As part of ISO 14001 requirements, we set local environmental performance goals, such as reducing energy use per square foot and minimizing waste generated on site, that are aligned with our overall corporate strategy. We also conduct periodic reviews and are subject to third-party audits of our operations, and we monitor environmental legislation and requirements to help make sure we are taking necessary measures to remain in compliance with applicable laws, not only in our operations but also for our products.

Human Capital

We take pride in, and believe our success depends on, attracting and retaining leading talent in the industry based on a culture-fit approach. From our inception, NetApp has worked to build a model company and has embraced a culture of openness and trust. Our employees are supported and encouraged to be innovative, and we communicate openly and transparently so that employees can focus on critical and impactful work that ties directly to our business strategy. We continue to invest in our global workforce to support diversity and inclusion and to support our employees’ well-being and development.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging

We believe diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging leads to more innovation, better access to talent and improved business outcomes. Our strategies are intended to increase the demographic and cognitive diversity of our employee population and promote a culture of equity and inclusion to achieve sustained business results. For more information about our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging, go to the “Diversity Inclusion Equity and Belonging” section of our website.

Benefits, Wellbeing and Engagement

Our healthcare options offer competitive, comprehensive coverage for our employees and their families, including: •National medical plans;•Regional medical plans;•Expert advice from world-renowned doctors through our medical second opinion program;•National dental plans;•National vision plans and•A robust wellness program.Insurance and income protection. We provide life, accidental death and dismemberment and disability insurance programs. For additional peace of mind, we also offer supplemental insurance for our employees and their dependents.Financial and savings programs. We offer flexible spending accounts, an employee stock purchase plan and competitive retirement plans, including options to maximize retirement savings. Flexible Work. We offer a flexible hybrid work program that allows employees, in consultation with their managers and teams, flexibility around where, when and how work is performed to deliver business outcomes, understanding that certain roles may be tied to specific locations or require an in-office presence due to business needs and job responsibilities, and to collaborate and connect most effectively. We are leaning into digital-first workflows, tools, and resources and programs to continuously promote flexibility, while enabling us to be productive, wherever we are. We also believe in the value of people being together, building relationships, fostering trust, collaboration and innovation. We have evolved into a hybrid model, in which employees who are assigned to an office can divide their work between the office and other locations about half the time. We continue to pilot, test and iterate our approach to support new ways of working and evolving the employee experience.Employee Wellbeing. We provide a wide range of wellbeing programs and tools to ensure employees and their families have the resources they need when they need them. We offer emotional wellbeing resources and programs such as back-up child and elder care, student debt repayment, educational assistance, and legal services for employees and their dependents. NetApp also offers a variety of time-off programs to help support our employees who need time-off. Employees also have access to discounts and fitness centers.Engagement. We help employees grow, develop and succeed at NetApp by encouraging an open and interactive culture, where individual needs are recognized and met, and Company goals are supported. For employees, growth goals are tied to corporate objectives and key results to ensure that employees are progressing and are supported by management teams. Managers are encouraged to set aside time at least each quarter to conduct a two-way conversation with each team member to offer feedback, guidance and support on goals, priorities and career development. The Company also conducts surveys that gauge employee sentiment in areas like cross-functional collaboration, manager performance and inclusivity and create action plans to address concerns and amplify opportunities. Giving Back. The NetApp Cares programs support our employees' efforts to make a positive difference in our communities. In fiscal 2024, more than 2,386 NetApp employees donated over 19,940 hours to serve their communities and make an impact around the world. The NetApp Cares programs encourage employees to volunteer through individual, team or company efforts.

Board Oversight of Human Capital Management

Our Board of Directors plays an active role in overseeing the Company's human capital management strategy and programs. Our Talent and Compensation Committee provides oversight of our talent strategy and key programs related to corporate culture, workforce diversity and inclusion, talent acquisition, engagement, development and retention.

Employees

As of April 26, 2024, we had approximately 11,800 employees worldwide. None of our employees are represented by a labor union and we consider relations with our employees to be good. Please visit our website for more detailed information regarding our human capital programs and initiatives. Nothing on our website shall be deemed incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging

We believe diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging leads to more innovation, better access to talent and improved business outcomes. Our strategies are intended to increase the demographic and cognitive diversity of our employee population and promote a culture of equity and inclusion to achieve sustained business results. For more information about our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging, go to the “Diversity Inclusion Equity and Belonging” section of our website.

Benefits, Wellbeing and Engagement

Our healthcare options offer competitive, comprehensive coverage for our employees and their families, including: •National medical plans;•Regional medical plans;•Expert advice from world-renowned doctors through our medical second opinion program;•National dental plans;•National vision plans and•A robust wellness program.Insurance and income protection. We provide life, accidental death and dismemberment and disability insurance programs. For additional peace of mind, we also offer supplemental insurance for our employees and their dependents.Financial and savings programs. We offer flexible spending accounts, an employee stock purchase plan and competitive retirement plans, including options to maximize retirement savings. Flexible Work. We offer a flexible hybrid work program that allows employees, in consultation with their managers and teams, flexibility around where, when and how work is performed to deliver business outcomes, understanding that certain roles may be tied to specific locations or require an in-office presence due to business needs and job responsibilities, and to collaborate and connect most effectively. We are leaning into digital-first workflows, tools, and resources and programs to continuously promote flexibility, while enabling us to be productive, wherever we are. We also believe in the value of people being together, building relationships, fostering trust, collaboration and innovation. We have evolved into a hybrid model, in which employees who are assigned to an office can divide their work between the office and other locations about half the time. We continue to pilot, test and iterate our approach to support new ways of working and evolving the employee experience.Employee Wellbeing. We provide a wide range of wellbeing programs and tools to ensure employees and their families have the resources they need when they need them. We offer emotional wellbeing resources and programs such as back-up child and elder care, student debt repayment, educational assistance, and legal services for employees and their dependents. NetApp also offers a variety of time-off programs to help support our employees who need time-off. Employees also have access to discounts and fitness centers.Engagement. We help employees grow, develop and succeed at NetApp by encouraging an open and interactive culture, where individual needs are recognized and met, and Company goals are supported. For employees, growth goals are tied to corporate objectives and key results to ensure that employees are progressing and are supported by management teams. Managers are encouraged to set aside time at least each quarter to conduct a two-way conversation with each team member to offer feedback, guidance and support on goals, priorities and career development. The Company also conducts surveys that gauge employee sentiment in areas like cross-functional collaboration, manager performance and inclusivity and create action plans to address concerns and amplify opportunities. Giving Back. The NetApp Cares programs support our employees' efforts to make a positive difference in our communities. In fiscal 2024, more than 2,386 NetApp employees donated over 19,940 hours to serve their communities and make an impact around the world. The NetApp Cares programs encourage employees to volunteer through individual, team or company efforts.

Board Oversight of Human Capital Management

Our Board of Directors plays an active role in overseeing the Company's human capital management strategy and programs. Our Talent and Compensation Committee provides oversight of our talent strategy and key programs related to corporate culture, workforce diversity and inclusion, talent acquisition, engagement, development and retention.

Employees

As of April 26, 2024, we had approximately 11,800 employees worldwide. None of our employees are represented by a labor union and we consider relations with our employees to be good. Please visit our website for more detailed information regarding our human capital programs and initiatives. Nothing on our website shall be deemed incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Information About Our Executive Officers

Our executive officers and their ages as of June 10, 2024, were as follows: [Table with ~6 rows, ~5 numbers, and 339 characters.] George Kurian is the chief executive officer of NetApp, a position he has held since June 1, 2015. He joined our Board of Directors in June 2015. From September 2013 to May 2015, he was executive vice president of product operations, overseeing all aspects of technology strategy, product and solutions development across our portfolio. Mr. Kurian joined NetApp in April 2011 as the senior vice president of the storage solutions group and was appointed to senior vice president of the Data ONTAP group in December 2011. Prior to joining NetApp, Mr. Kurian held several positions with Cisco Systems from 2002 to 2011, including vice president and general manager of the application networking and switching technology group. Additional roles include vice president of product management and strategy at Akamai Technologies from 1999 to 2002, as well as a management consultant at McKinsey and Company and a leader on the software engineering and product management teams at Oracle Corporation. Mr. Kurian is a board member at Cigna Corporation, a global health services company, where he serves on the compliance committee and people resources committee, and holds a BS degree in electrical engineering from Princeton University and an MBA degree from Stanford University.César Cernuda came to NetApp in July 2020 as president and is responsible for leading the Company’s global go-to-market organization spanning sales, marketing, services, support, and customer success. Mr. Cernuda joined NetApp after a long career at Microsoft that included various leadership roles. Mr. Cernuda is non-executive director and chairman of the ESG committee at Gestamp, an international group dedicated to automotive components. He is also on the advisory boards of Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business and the IESE Business School – University of Navarra. Mr. Cernuda is a graduate of the Harvard Business School Executive Leadership Program and the Program for Management Development at IESE Business School – University of Navarra, and he also completed the Leading Sustainable Corporations Programme at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from ESIC Business & Marketing School.Michael J. Berry joined NetApp in March 2020 as executive vice president and chief financial officer, overseeing the worldwide finance, investor relations, security and IT organizations. Mr. Berry has served as a chief financial officer for over 16 years in both public and private companies including McAfee, FireEye, Informatica, and SolarWinds. Most recently he was executive vice president and chief financial officer at McAfee where he was responsible for all aspects of finance, including financial planning, accounting, tax and treasury, as well as operations and shared services. Mr. Berry is a board member of Rapid7, Inc., where he serves as chair of the audit committee. Mr. Berry holds a BS degree in finance from Augsburg University and an MBA degree in finance from the University of St. Thomas.Harvinder S. Bhela joined NetApp in January 2022 as executive vice president and chief product officer. He is responsible for leading NetApp’s product and engineering teams and building our multi-cloud, storage and data services products and solutions. Before joining NetApp, Mr. Bhela spent 25 years at Microsoft where he held multiple executive leadership positions. Most recently he served as corporate vice president of the Microsoft 365 Security, Compliance and Management business. Mr. Bhela holds a Bachelor of Engineering from the University of Mumbai and a Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota.Elizabeth M. O’Callahan joined NetApp in 2013 and has served as NetApp’s executive vice president, chief legal officer, and corporate secretary since January 2022. Prior to her appointment as chief legal officer, Ms. O’Callahan served as senior vice president and general counsel from May 2021 to December 2021, as vice president and deputy general counsel from May 2020 to April 2021, and as vice president, corporate legal from October 2013 to April 2020. Ms. O’Callahan has over 20 years of experience advising technology companies on a variety of matters, including corporate governance, securities law, mergers and acquisitions, capital markets transactions, corporate compliance and ethics, data privacy, intellectual property, litigation and government relations. Before joining NetApp, Ms. O’Callahan served in a senior legal role at Xilinx (since acquired by AMD). She began her legal career in private practice in Silicon Valley specializing in corporate law and business litigation. Ms. O’Callahan holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Los Angeles and a J.D. from Santa Clara University.

Additional Information

Our internet address is www.netapp.com. We make available through our internet website our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, including exhibits, amendments to those reports and other documents filed or furnished pursuant to the Exchange Act of 1934, as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such materials with, or furnish them to, the SEC.The SEC maintains an internet site (www.sec.gov) that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC.