Hybrid cloud data services firm NetApp has revealed it has cut its workforce by almost 6% as the firm looks to narrow its business focus for the future.
Revealing the cuts before its quarterly earnings call, NetApp told The Register that it is "realigning resources and investments" in order to best capture opportunities and "position the company for long-term success".
"We continue to sharpen our focus on markets where we have both a significant presence and clear competitive advantage, specifically with our storage software and systems and cloud data services," NetApp explained.
"These changes are a continuation of the transformation we are undertaking as we focus on driving growth for more customers globally by enabling their digital transformations and cloud journeys."
The Register also revealed details of an all-hands email, sent on 25th August, which detailed a 5.5% reduction to NetApp’s workforce of 11,000. According to the news site, employees were quickly informed if their roles were being made redundant.
In terms of where the cuts have taken place, the axe appears to have fallen heaviest on the company’s marketing department – which includes technical marketers – as well as among the engineers and developers inherited when NetApp acquired SolidFire back in 2015.
NetApp CEO George Kurian later confirmed that the layoffs would impact the all-flash storage vendor, as well as the HCI hyper-converged infrastructure solution which is built on SolidFire.
"SolidFire, yes, I can confirm was part of the team that was impacted," he said. "We are narrowing our focus with the SolidFire and HCI portfolio to the high-margin parts of the market as we have signalled on prior calls."
Responding to questions during NetApp’s quarterly earnings call, Kurian said the changes largely took place within areas of the business that didn’t align with its main priorities going forward.
"Those changes were driven by the strategic alignment and focus that we have to prioritise our resources in the core storage systems and software business, as well as accelerating our public cloud services business," he explained.
NetApp’s quarterly earnings report revealed unexpected earnings and sales growth, posting net income of $77 million on sales of $1.3 billion – up from $1.24 billion for the previous year.
