US tech company NetApp to open international headquarters in Cork

US-based technology company NetApp is to open its international headquarters in Cork, employing up to 500 people by 2025.

Recruitment will begin immediately and take place in phases, with the company adding roles for engineers, sales operations and finance.

The company, which employs 11,000 people worldwide, offers data management and hybrid cloud data services to clients. It is seeking to expand its operations internationally, a strategy that the Irish office will help to support. The exact location of the office is still under discussion, with a shortlist of five locations.

NetApp has its headquarters in California in the US, with a network of offices around the world, including Australia, Russia, Hong Kong, the UK, the Netherlands and Germany. The Cork-based international headquarters will be responsible for supporting growth in the business outside the US.

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Business growth

"There are two big trends in the market, cloud and digital transformation. The strategy of NetApp is to continue to grow our business and to expand our international presence, and also to expand engineering talent," said Marc Montiel, NetApp's vice president of enterprise for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

"For that reason we have decided to establish our international headquarters in Ireland. We have gone through a long process to find the best location. When we looked at the different ecosystems, we thought that Ireland was the best for us."

Among the attracting factors was the level of graduates in the Irish labour market, along with the presence of companies in NetApp's ecosystem in Ireland. Google, Microsoft and Intel have all set up here, along with most of the top 10 software companies, some of which work with NetApp.

The company has continued to strengthen its business, even as the Covid-19 pandemic continued. That was down to the trend for digital transformation which has accelerated as companies were forced to find new ways to keep their businesses operating during restrictive measures to try to slow the spread of the virus.

“We benefitted from the digital transformation acceleration that we have seen during the recovery. For NetApp, it was an opportunity to show our customers that we could help them to accelerate the transformation,” said Mr Montiel.

"Before Covid, some companies told us it would take them years to go through this digital transformation, but due to Covid they had to accelerate.

“If you look at NetApp over the last three or four quarters, we have had very good numbers, very strong numbers.”