NetApp (NTAP)

Pent up demand for IT infrastructure spending after a massive decrease in IT budgets over the least 18 months means that servers, storage and networking will all experience an upsurge over the next year or two. Whereas server shipments have been held in check or are going down because of the increase in server virtualisation by companies such as vmware, this pushes more spending into the storage layer where NetApp has invested significant amount of R&D over the last few years.

Longer term a proven track record in deploying "Private Cloud" infrastructure, strong incumbent presence in the Internet service providor and telco space, and recent increase in alliance activities with the like of Fujistu and Microsoft positions NetApp well to take advantage of a move towards cloud computing and "Infrastructure as a Service" offerings.

NetApp strong corporate culture allowed it to succesfully make a similar transition when the previous dot.com boom went bust by succesfully penetrating the financial services sector which set it up for 30%CAGR until that particular bubble burst during the recent global financial crisis. As we pull out of this current crisis I expect NetApp to significantly outperform the market as a whole, and with a little luck, may become the darling of the tech growth sector once again.