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Network Appliance Inc. today announced a first-quarter profit of $27.1 million from $260.5 million in revenue, up slightly from the last quarter and drastically from a year ago.
The previous quarters figures were $24.8 million income on earnings of $241.6 million, with $16.2 million on $206.8 million a year ago.
“This quarters results were highlighted by strong revenue growth and continued improvement in the operating profit margin,” CEO Dan Warmenhoven said in a prepared statement. “We continue to focus on our partnerships, innovative technology, and service and support solutions,” he said, in Sunnyvale, Calif.
Warmenhoven also announced the hiring of Ed Deenihan, formerly of Electronic Data Systems, for the new position of executive vice president of customer satisfaction.
Bringing in about $5 million in revenue for the quarter was Network Appliances new FAS200 system, which has sold about 200 units so far, Warmenhoven said. The NearStore product has sold 2.7 petabytes worth, and SnapVault has sold 50,000 seats, he added.
Despite the companys enthusiasm today, officials have recently acknowledged areas where the company seeks to improve, such as in the Fibre Channel market.
The companys highlights in the quarter included the launch of its Manage OnTap application-programming interface and software developers kit; distribution agreements with Arrow Electronics Inc. and Avnet Inc.; expanded partnerships with Fujitsu Siemens Computers, McData Corp., and Oracle Corp.; and hundreds of downloads of the companys iSCSI software, officials said.
Regarding storages place in the worldwide economy, “I dont sense that there is a buying spree going on, but I do think that there is pent-up demand,” Warmenhoven said. For all product lines, sales were especially good in the Asia-Pacific market, and there are now 2,359 total employees, officials added. Also, for the first time, Network Appliance has more indirect than direct sales in the quarter, they said.
Network Appliance also recently expanded its Veritas Software Corp. partnership, but that happened after the first quarter already closed.