NetApp: Fiscal 1Q27 Financial Results
Generating $2.03 billion, up 4.2% QoQ and up 30% YoY
This is a Press Release edited by StorageNewsletter.com on September 8, 2026 at 2:01 pmSummary:
- Record quarterly net revenues of $2.03 billion, an increase of 30% YoY
- Record all-flash array net revenue of $1.3 billion for the first quarter of fiscal year 2027, an increase of 47% YoY
- Record Public Cloud net revenue of $206 million for the first quarter of fiscal year 2027, an increase of 28% YoY
- Billings of $2.06 billion for the first quarter of fiscal year 2027, an increase of 36% YoY
- First quarter GAAP operating margin of 23.9%; first quarter non-GAAP operating margin of 31.9%
- Acquired DataPelago, Inc., an AI data infrastructure company, to help customers simplify and accelerate AI deployment at scale
NetApp, an intelligent data infrastructure company, reported financial results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2027, which ended on July 31, 2026.
“NetApp delivered a record-setting start to the year, exceeding guidance on every metric and achieving our strongest first quarter ever,” said George Kurian, CEO, NetApp. “Our momentum reflects not only the trust of existing customers but also our success in winning new ones, as organizations choose the NetApp Platform to power their AI and hybrid multi-cloud initiatives. Through continued innovation and strategic investments, we are enabling customers to address their most critical needs and creating lasting value for all stakeholders.”
Click to enlarge
First Quarter of Fiscal Year 2027 Business Highlights
Click to enlarge
Leading Product Innovation
- NetApp announced the release of StorageGRID 12.1, designed to help customers scale AI and other modern workloads with a federated global namespace, improving how data is accessed, processed, and managed across distributed environments to support AI data pipelines
- NetApp announced new capabilities to NetApp Trident software 26.06 that helps Kubernetes platform teams scale workloads, while adding smarter volume placement, non-disruptive iSCSI volume rebalancing, expanded cloud support, and deeper integration for OpenShift Virtualization migrations
- NetApp announced new data management capabilities optimized for Red Hat OpenShift that enable advanced levels of resilience and scale for virtualized environments, on-premises and in the cloud
- NetApp announcedInstaclustr for Model Context Protocol (MCP) Gateway, a fully managed gateway service that connects Instaclustr managed data infrastructure to AI applications and agents
- NetApp announced the general availability ofAzure NetApp Files support for large files up to 64 TiB on regular volumes to help remove the friction from large-scale migrations, de-risk VMware estate moves, and allow architects to design cleaner, more cost-effective solutions
- NetApp announced the general availability ofAzure NetApp Files Object REST API to eliminate complex data pipelines and enable direct access to AI capabilities through standardized interfaces
- NetApp introduced nconnect on Azure VMware Solution, increasing throughput and lowering effective latency under load without adding datastores or hosts
- NetApp announced the general availability ofAzure NetApp Files migration assistant to accelerate and simplify migrations of business-critical applications and data to Azure
Customer and Partner Momentum
- NetApp announced a collaboration with Cisco to offer new solutions for secure, scalable, and simplified AI, expanding on the success of FlexPod to support AI adoption across organizations
- NetApp announced an expanded collaboration with Cisco to strengthen defense-in-depth strategies for customers with the new NetApp Splunk Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) playbook
- NetApp announced a deepened global alliance with CGI where NetApp Keystone will power CGI’s block storage solutions within its shared services platform
- NetApp and SK Telecom announced the completion of a joint proof of concept, using NetApp AFX systems with SK Telecom’s Petasus AI Cloud, demonstrating a solution that enables enterprises to scale AI infrastructure in virtualized environments while maintaining high performance
- NetApp and Okestro signed a strategic partnership agreement to jointly develop integrated enterprise AI and disaster recovery infrastructure
- NetApp announced a strategic partnership with Tata Consultancy Services to better help organizations discover, classify, and govern data across locations, reduce the impact of cyber-attacks, speed up recovery times, and provide insights on sensitive data locations and permissions
Corporate News and Events
- NetApp announced its acquisition of DataPelago, Inc., to further enable computing where data is created and stored, accelerating demanding workloads while improving infrastructure efficiency at scale
Personnel
- NetApp appointed Alvaro Celis as Chief Partner and Ecosystem Officer to lead partner ecosystems, modernize incentive programs, improve partner satisfaction, and drive growth
Awards and Recognition
- NetApp CEO, George Kurian, was named toCRN’s 25 Most Influential Executives of 2026 list, emphasizing his leadership in data storage amid the age of cloud and AI
- NetApp’s AI Data Engine was named as a finalist in CRN’s 2026 Tech Innovator Awards, noting its ability to transform massive unstructured data estates into always-fresh, AI-ready assets with enterprise-grade security, compliance, and operational efficiency
- NetApp was named a Leader in the Forrester Wave: Object Storage Solutions, Q2 2026, showcasing our strong fit for large enterprises managing distributed, regulated object estates that want to balance governance and hybrid consistency against the need for AI-native storage services
- NetApp was recognized in The Wall Street Journal’s 2026 Best Companies For The Future list, ranking 60 out of 500 organizations
- NetApp was named as one of the Greatest Workplaces in America, California, and Tech for 2026 by Newsweek, receiving a five-star rating based on a comprehensive worker satisfaction study
- NetApp was named to Time Magazine’s Best Companies of 2026 list, ranking 271 out of 1,000 organizations
- NetApp was named as one of the Best Companies to Work For by U.S. News, highlighting its top work environment
Click to enlarge
Comments
NetApp delivered its strongest quarter ever with net revenue of $2.03B, up 4.2% sequentially and up 30% YoY, blowing past its own guidance range of $1.75–1.90B and consensus estimates. All-flash array revenue hit $1.31B (+47%) and confirms a strong adoption and alignments with market demands, public cloud crossed $200M for the first time ($206M, +28%), and billings jumped 36% to $2.06B. Together, all-flash and public cloud now represent 75% of total revenue, a meaningful mix shift away from legacy hybrid infrastructure toward the AI-and-cloud story NetApp has been building for several years.
The company also closed the DataPelago acquisition, adding AI data infrastructure capability aimed at computing closer to where data is created, and struck partnerships spanning Cisco (FlexPod AI expansion, Splunk SOAR), CGI, SK Telecom, Okestro, and Tata Consultancy Services. CEO George Kurian framed the results as broad-based demand for the "NetApp Platform" across AI and hybrid multicloud initiatives, not a one-off. Tactically, as a real bargain, NetApp has acquired JetStream Software, an interesting solution and a key layer in VMware disaster recovery and migration.
Click to enlarge
Two caveats temper the headline. First, management explicitly flagged an extra week in the quarter (NetApp's fiscal calendar occasionally has a 14-week Q1), contributing roughly $65 million, meaningful, but not enough on its own to explain a 30-point growth swing from the ~1% growth NetApp posted in 1Q26. Second, and more telling: free cash flow fell 35% YoY to $401M despite the revenue surge, and operating cash flow dropped 25% to $503M. Inventory nearly doubled from fiscal year-end ($198M to $375M) as NetApp built supply ahead of demand, a sensible move if the AI cycle holds, a working-capital drag if it doesn't. The stock reportedly fell roughly 8% on the print, with investors evidently weighing the cash-flow softness and some "pulled-forward" purchasing against the otherwise pristine income statement.
That guidance math is worth sitting with. NetApp raised full-year FY27 revenue guidance to $7.975–8.225B, implying $5.95–6.2B across the remaining three quarters, or roughly flat-to-modest growth versus the ~$1.71–1.95B run-rate exited in FY26. Given Q1 alone delivered $2.03B, the sequential Q2 guide of $2.025–2.175B looks conservative, and reaching the top of FY27 guidance would require growth to decelerate meaningfully in the back half. management itself acknowledged this, citing both the extra-week effect and some pulled-forward AI/modernization spending that may not repeat. The $8B FY27 revenue target appears to be soldi an being a minimum based on the company revenue trajectory and current and coming pipelines.
This quarter is genuine evidence that NetApp's all-flash and cloud storage services are participating in the AI infrastructure buildout, not just riding a cyclical storage refresh, the 47% AI-flash growth and expanding gross margins on public cloud (86.4%) support that. But the cash-flow deterioration, inventory build, and management's own signal of decelerating growth into 2H27 suggest the print is best read as "real momentum, amplified by one-time factors" rather than a clean new baseline. The next one or two quarters, particularly whether Q2 clears its own guidance, will determine which story dominates.
Click to enlarge
The curve below illustrates the solid growth for several quarters.
Click to enlarge
The coming NetApp Insight annual conference end of September in Las Vegas, NV, should be interested following 2 key acquisitions, key partnerships, all flash array mark et penetrations and validations and some directions around unification of storage foundation with global access approach and one namespace instantiated as one platform.
Subscribe to our free daily newsletter
