NetApp (Nasdaq: NTAP) formally dedicated a new 155,000-square foot research and development lab at its growing campus in Research Triangle Park on Friday morning.
Despite two recent rounds of layoffs across the company, NetApp continues to grow in N.C.
According to a spokesperson for the high-tech storage firm that is based in California, NetApp now employs more than 1,600 people in RTP.
Friday’s event also marks the 15th anniversary of NetApp’s presence in the region. The company chose RTP for a $61 million expansion in 2007 and has expanded steadily since then.
N.C. Secretary of Commerce Sharon Decker was expected to attend the event along with Rich Clifton, an executive vice president with NetApp who oversees RTP operations.
“As the industry moves to complex hybrid cloud approaches, our customers are increasingly turning to our proven expertise to navigate this time of unprecedented technology-driven change,” Clifton, who is executive vice president for Customer Success Operations, said in a statement.
“The state-of-the-art engineering facility showcases best practices in advanced data center design. It will enhance our ability to innovate on the next generation of storage and data management technology and provide an efficient global backbone for delivering enterprise-class service and support.”
While no new jobs may be announced, the NetApp spokesperson noted that the company “has three active Job Development Investment Grants” with the state. So-called JDIGs offer companies tax rebates if they meet commitments to create new jobs.
“NetApp’s success in RTP is due in part to its close collaboration with state and local governments,” the spokesperson said. “The State of North Carolina has fostered a business-friendly environment with grant programs designed to stimulate job creation.”
The new lab is known as GDL-2, and it will serve as a hub for development of cloud-computing related services and technology.
“Because the lab features a high-speed 40Gb/s Ethernet network backbone (100Gb/s Ethernet ready), NetApp engineering teams from around the world can quickly access private cloud resources to perform complex engineering tasks,” NetApp said in its announcement.
“Additionally, state-of-the-art automation and self-service capabilities at the lab allow NetApp engineers to provision and deprovision development and test environments for business-critical applications in minutes, dramatically accelerating the development and quality control process. The lab can scale to support environments comprising up to one million virtual machines and thousands of NetApp controllers.”
NetApp’s campus is located adjacent to Cisco Systems’ campus, which is that company’s second largest outside its corporate headquarters in California. Some 5,000 people work there.
In fact, some of the NetApp campus consists of buildings in acquired from Cisco which had constructed them and decided later not to occupy.
