Accenture and NetApp Expand Relationship

Accenture and NetApp, Inc. are expanding their existing relationship with two technology agreements:

• one for the joint development, marketing, and delivery of a customized set of solutions focused on data center optimization and virtualization, cloud computing, and application optimization; and
• the second for NetApp’s Professional Services organization to expand its implementation capabilities by leveraging a dedicated Accenture team providing consulting and integration services.

Under the agreements, Accenture and NetApp will continue to develop and deliver solutions for data center optimization and transformation, cloud solution implementation, virtual desktop implementation, enterprise resource planning (ERP) application optimization, and business application ROI enhancements via infrastructure virtualization and efficiency.

"We are seeing IT emerge from a support role to take center stage as a major business driver for many organizations," said, Rockwell Bonecutter, Global Alliance Channel Lead, Accenture. "Companies today want not only speed and simplicity in their IT infrastructure solutions but also maximum flexibility, efficiency, and functionality. Teaming with NetApp, we can help clients transition to a flexible and efficient shared IT infrastructure, setting the foundation to take advantage of cloud computing."

"As customers rethink their IT infrastructures and look for new alternatives to better align IT to the speed of business, they require solutions that are both integrated and innovative," said Thomas Stanley, vice president of Global System Integrators at NetApp. "Working with Accenture, we can integrate innovative, industry-leading IT stacks that help customers move to a shared IT infrastructure that is flexible, efficient, and ready for the future."

Accenture and NetApp have already leveraged these solutions and teamed to deliver results for Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.

"As a global natural resources company, the latest economic downturn provided us a unique opportunity to focus on business process transformation in preparation for the eventual recovery in our business," said Bert Odinet, vice president and chief information officer at Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. "We turned to our partners at Accenture and NetApp to help us refresh our IT infrastructure to be better aligned to our evolving business requirements. There were crucial differences in the capabilities of the innovative, best-of-breed stack approach they offered that couldn’t be matched by other solutions we evaluated. As a result, we were able to reduce program risk, provide infrastructure scalability, and create a lower-cost operating model – all of this while accelerating a significant business process transformation program."

"IT organizations continue to grapple with flat IT budgets and exploding data growth, while constantly being challenged to drive greater business value," said Jeff Hine, senior analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group. "The result has been a growing sense of urgency for new alternatives that offer greater flexibility, efficiency, and cost savings. Customers no longer want to sacrifice innovation for integration; they want both from the best vendors across the stack. The Accenture and NetApp joint initiative offers a compelling value proposition for customers by delivering an innovative, leading-edge IT stack comprised of differentiated solutions designed to deliver greater agility and productivity at a lower cost."

According to ESG’s 2011 Spending Intentions Survey, business process improvement and new application upgrades and deployments are at the top of end users’ lists of technology areas to focus on in 2011. "This partnership is squarely in support of end-user initiatives to leverage existing database and back-office software investments to increase efficiencies and become more competitive," added Hine.