NetApp (Nasdaq: NTAP) is pressing forward on a series of changes that will shave the data storage vendor’s worldwide headcount by 900 employees while also navigating additional investments that the company says will support the its growth.

However, the layoffs doesn’t mean the storage device technology firm is reducing its commitment to its RTP campus.

“NetApp remains committed to fostering a vibrant technology community in RTP,” Rich Clifton, senior vice president for Custom Sucess Operations,” told WRALTechWire Tuesday night shortly after the job cuts were announced.

“This week, we announced a global organizational realignment to support critical growth priorities. To support these priorities, and help us meet our business objectives, we continue our plans to grow our operations in the RTP region, and to attract, hire, and retain our industry’s best talent,” he added.

The company will do so in an environment where spending on IT infrastructure is limited in both the private and public sectors, constraints that are facing all IT vendors. CEO Tom Georgens, speaking to analysts on a conference call to discuss fiscal fourth quarter and full year 2013 financial results, said NetApp is not changing its strategy. He said that the company is realigning its resources with an eye on the future.

“This requires difficult decisions that will ultimately make the company stronger,” Georgens said.

“Not … a Cut-and-Freeze Strategy”

“I think, first and foremost, this is not effectively a cut-and-freeze strategy here. I think this is a fundamentally a realignment. There are set of things that we need to do to be successful, whether it be driving adoption of clustered ONTAP [product], whether it be the success of our flash offerings and the introduction of flash array and whether it be other things that are on the roadmap that are not public,” he added, according to a transcript of the call provided by SeekingAlpha. 

“Likewise, the go-to-market activity needs to be aligned around the alliance partners, as that heats up, not just Cisco. And we said we just won a Microsoft Partner of the Year award yesterday. That continues to heat up for us. So that, clearly, investment area is that we want to go after. Now we need to go after that in such a way that it’s cognizant of the fact that it’s going to be a low-growth environment, and we’re not going to see a lot of expansion of the operating expense envelope.

“So yes, we cut back and that freed up the resource to redeploy. Some of those resources are part of the company, and we can redeploy them. And some of them are not, and we need to add over time. That’s why we still expect to be hiring this quarter. We still expect to be hiring each of the quarters the rest of the way.

“So obviously, if the top line doesn’t materialize and this business industry slows down even more than we’re concerned about now, we’ll modulate that. But right now, we do have an investment plan to basically align around the key initiatives that’s built into our plan for the year. And that’s what’s driving the estimates that Nick put out for the full year numbers.”

Job Cuts

Those company changes will come with 900 fewer employees working for the Sunnyvale, Calif. company, which operates its second largest site at a campus in Research Triangle Park. The RTP site employs about 1,450 out of the company’s some 12,000 total employees. In securities filings, the company said it committed to the business restructuring on May 15. The company expects severance and related expenses will cost between $50 million and $60 million.

NetApp did not specify where the job cuts will fall. CFO Nick Noviello said that the “disinvestment” will be seen across the company including sales, engineering and administration. But Georgens emphasized that while the restructuring will cut some jobs, it will also free up resources to redeploy elsewhere. And he said the company won’t stop hiring. He said that the company will make investments in order to grow, regardless of market conditions.

“I see us as a share gainer,” Georgens said. “We’re focused on share gain because share gain is share gain whether the market is up or the market is down.”

NetApp could be facing some of those headwinds now. The company’s 2014 fiscal first quarter revenue guidance is in the range of $1.475 billion to $1.575 billion. That’s shy of the $1.6 billion average of analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

Georgens said NetApp is pressing forward in a manner that will maintain the company’s growth while also returning value to shareholders. The company’s share buyback plan was increased from $1.4 billion to an additional $1.6 billion. NetApp will also issue a dividend of 15 cents per share.

The company has been facing pressure from an activist shareholder pressing for greater shareholder value. Bloomberg News first reported last week that New York hedge fund Elliot Management had taken a stake in the company and was pressing for changes.

“We commend the positive steps taken by NetApp today to improve both the capital and cost structure at the company,” Jesse Cohn, portfolio manager at New York-based Elliott Management, said in an e-mailed statement to Bloomberg News. “As a significant shareholder, Elliott believes NetApp is a highly valuable and strategic company and we look forward to the company’s continued commitment to creating shareholder value.”