I'd always wondered what NetApp stood for, and if I lose this article I'll forget again.

[I think it looks like the lower half of a fine young woman sprite from an old computer game. I'll just get my mac...]

shouldn't they rename OnTAP, their filer OS, to "o".

Then you could just say "no" to their boxen.

Doesn't look like a gateway to me. Just looks like they couldn't hire an artist. Reminds me of the blocky Q Quark tried to use that was exactly like something in Scotland.

Its a dead end!

I _tried_ reading Dave's blog (Dave who? Am I supposed to know this _person_?), but _gave_ up after reading a couple of _paragraphs_. It is all _very_ well spewing _marketing_ crap, but I find it _more_ or less impossible _to_ read anything where _random_ words are italicised and people _speak_ to me as if I know _jack_shit_.

So _much_ for _creating_ brand awareness when I can't even _read_ their message about _their_ new brand.

It's obviously a Space Invaders base.

While their brightest minds were doing the corporate name change, hundreds of Netapp machines got infected by a msn messenger based worm and started sending out the same worm to customer sites.

Allowing Consumer IM + extremely stupid = Netapp

I think "Hoomi" who commented on the blog article got it spot on:

-- quote

Doesn't the logo look like Stonehenge?

Staying with the Spinal Tap theme would it have been better to change your tag line to "All our filers go up to 11"...

-- /quote

...mine's the one with "Dobly" written across the back...

that heart thing is a bit scary..it sort of makes my own pulse race. also other logos...the spilling glass of water, the plant tendrils...what the hell are they smoking up at netapp HQ ??

... a horseshoe magnet.

Which is just what I don't want to imagine coming anywhere near my storage devices.

...go farther, faster?

it should also still be possible to call it

".snapshot/nightly.1/Network Appliances"

Go to digg.com and compare their logo and page header style to this new NetApp look and feel. Do you think it was done by the same bloke?

I used to work for SGI. Which went through the same identity crisis back in 2000. Redesigned their company name, logo, websites, fonts etc. I got a 50 page glossy magazine just telling me about corporate identity. They also re-branded their product into boring 4figures numbers, because they hoped to save marketing. But then we just became yet another gray hardware vendor and even more commodity.

Hired some cool web-dudes which talked about web-years and betting everything on selling through a web-portal. A few months later it they were all gone. It only accelerated the fall. Instead of cutting costs, designing cheaper products, outsource expensive production.

It's the same with NetApp, their products have turned commodity and they have no value-add to sustain above commodity prices to finance the management, facility overhead-cost. I predict falling turnover and headcount reductions until they finally reach chapter11. Then some investors may be stupid enough to try kicking life back into the dead horse, just to delay the inevitable a few more years.

They used to be the cheaper/better alternative to SUN's NFS servers, I can't see anything at NetApp offering anything near the features/value of a SUN Fire X4500.

>While their brightest minds were doing the corporate name change,

> hundreds of Netapp machines got infected by a msn messenger

>based worm and started sending out the same worm to customer sites.

>Allowing Consumer IM + extremely stupid = Netapp

Hello mister Clueless. I Worked for an Antivirus Vendor

before i took a position at Netapp.

Their machines run ONTAP - there is not even a case study and certainly no working virus for that OS in the wild. They cannot be infected.

If youre too stupid to install a AV solution on your Front end, dont blame the Hard-Disk manufacturer.

About the Branding, yes - i think all technical people at netapp

think its a big marketing bullshit campaign. But it makes the bosses

happy, if they are happy they allow us to do our job. So its all good.

No worries, some of us are indeed forucssing on technical improvements

too, although it doesnt come across with that branding blabla

Honesty in the logo - fantastic. More rebrands like this please!

I think the new logo looks like the business half of the Luke Skywalker Lego action figure.

I think all the hand-wringing about corporate branding is crap. And, it'll cost them a fortune to change all the letterhead and business cards, and the net result is that... we'll continue to call them Netapp, just like we always have. *sigh*

It is quite obviously a pair of pantaloons, as worn by some lesser-known 21st century pirate related to the founder. This represents the fact that they're as sophisticated as pirates, and just as morally ambiguous. The white on blue obviously means that they're sad, but putting on a happy face. The fact that it's really pixellated simply means that they blew all their cash on joss sticks, and couldn't hire a graphics designer.

Did NetApp move over here to Mexico City? That new logo looks oddly familiar ... like the "pants" building over here in the Santa Fe CBD...

Something. It isn't a gateway, it isn't the letter N, it isn't a bridge... But it is something. Personally I liked the nut - that was appropriate I thought. But this new marketing push is designed to reach the CIO and CEO level and Lord only knows what they will see in it. What's-his-name's blog said that techies would call it "bullshit" - well he got that right.

But serriously now, for us techies that read this stuff, it is a cool company with awsome support and releases of "ON TAP" named after beers - how cool is that. That speaks to me, it says the people in the trenches understand the people in the field.

So, this new logo is brought to you by Sesame Street and the letter "n". Just don't look at the white space, it really isn't the middle finger and whatever you do, do not cut out 2 of the logos and put them together as a swastika. That was not the intention, I am sure.

You know, this could be fun. And is it just me or does the "n" look like a pacemaker on that heart on the web site? I don't associate internal organs and storage, but I am technically competent (even if I can't spell) so I will never be a CIO.

Federal Express to FedEx made more sense but I am waiting for the merger with UPS - FedUps

If your stools look like this, you should urgently seek medical advice.

While the new logo may not be the perfect change, if any of you remember the old one it is certainly a step up. The old Black and white "Network Appliance" was outdated and did little for recongition but say explicitly the company name and for the most part exactly what they provide (both not unimportant attributes, but NetApp's old logo would be akin to McDonalds being called "Burgers" and their logo an uncooked beef patty). But since this is now considered a commodity space, even something as seemingly inconsequential as a logo refresh with color and and a representative symbol could help strengthen their brand presence and psycho-stickiness. Sure this lacks the flair and bleeding over brand recognition of an HP campaign (see roadblock around this article), but NetApp doesn't have brand crossover to mass consumer campaigns with million dollar celebrity endorsers that help influence people outside of the server space.

Instead of harking solely on their new campaign and rebranding, they should be using brand launch PR to both let people know who they are, as well as point out their strengths that help differentiate their product. Perhaps NetApp should use positive satisfaction of premium-level clients, and impending product offerings as a selling point. What is the point of knowing who someone is if you don't know why you should care about them to begin with?

BTW, the logo is totally the "Arc de Triumphe"

NetApps is nuts.

The new logo and disgusting heart campaign are bad ideas poorly executed.