NetApp: Sort Of No. 2

Of the top storage vendors, NetApp was the big winner by a huge margin in the first quarter of 2017.

NetApp maintained its position as the second-largest storage external storage systems vendor, with sales of $731.6 million, up 13.3 percent over last year. And because NetApp does not sell servers, its total worldwide enterprise storage systems was also $731.6 million, which gave it a respectable third place in that category.

NetApp has been gaining strength for several quarters as it has sorted out issues related to transitioning customers to its latest Ontap operating system. Even more significant, NetApp appears to be the fastest-growing flash storage vendor, and could grab the No. 1 spot in that part of the market soon.