NetApp Cloud Lead Anthony Lye Departs For Palantir

July 21, 2022, 02:49 PM EDT

‘The individuals [at NetApp], the functions and my position have been a as soon as in a lifetime alternative. I beloved and love NetApp. I’m very pleased with what I completed. I depart the corporate higher, the enterprise, the product and the individuals I delivered to the corporate are issues I’ll eternally be pleased with,’ says Anthony Lye, who this month left as head of NetApp’s public cloud enterprise Unit.

Anthony Lye, who powered NetApp’s progress in cloud providers and helped remodel the corporate from its legacy deal with storage, left the corporate this month to hitch Palantir Applied sciences.

Lye, who joined NetApp nearly five-and-a-half years in the past and left as government vice chairman and basic supervisor for public cloud providers, constructed and led that firm’s public cloud enterprise unit, and took the lead in a number of vital acquisitions that added a variety of non-storage cloud providers that turned NetApp right into a public cloud providers chief.

Lye, in his new position as international head of Palantir Apollo and the product-led progress enterprise unit, is now centered on taking a look at tips on how to ship issues just like the Apollo steady supply system as a service for purchasers and companions, and construct new consumption fashions for Palantir Foundry, an open structure connecting knowledge, analytics, and enterprise groups to a typical basis.

[Related: NETAPP CEO GEORGE KURIAN: DELL, HPE ARE ‘DOING WHAT WE DID IN 2014’]

Lye advised CRN through LinkedIn that Denver-based software program agency Palantir is a particular firm and is near the functions area the place he got here from.

“It was simply too good a suggestion,” Lye mentioned. “The individuals [at NetApp], the functions and my position have been a as soon as in a lifetime alternative. I beloved and love NetApp. I’m very pleased with what I completed. I depart the corporate higher, the enterprise, the product and the individuals I delivered to the corporate are issues I’ll eternally be pleased with.”

NetApp, in response to a CRN request for extra info, confirmed through e mail that Lye departed from his position at NetApp efficient July 11.

“Throughout his time at NetApp Anthony and his workforce of cloud enterprise leaders and technical consultants have made vital contributions to NetApp, enabling our Cloud enterprise to develop from lower than $1M ARR (annual recurring income) to greater than $500M ARR and pushed a number of scalable and profitable M&As to create the CloudOps class the place we’re positioned because the market chief,” mentioned a NetApp spokesperson. “Anthony and the cloud workforce have been instrumental within the breakthrough technical and enterprise mannequin innovation now we have completed with the hyperscale cloud suppliers, constructing distinctive options.”

Lye leaves a legacy of public cloud providers that not solely touched cloud storage, but in addition cloud compute, functions, and digital desktop infrastructure that modified NetApp into a number one cloud firm.

Among the many acquisitions Lye led have been:

* Instacluster, acquired in April 2022, a developer of a platform for delivering absolutely managed open-source database, pipeline and workflow functions as a service.

* Fylamynt, acquired in February 2022, a developer of CloudOps automation know-how it says lets companies securely construct, run, handle, and analyze cloud workloads with little or no code.

* CloudCheckr, acquired in October 2021, affords full AWS cloud administration in a single platform, proactive safety monitoring throughout AWS providers, in addition to value allocation instruments and assist for channel companions trying to develop their AWS enterprise.

* Knowledge Mechanics, acquired in June 2021, a cloud analytics and massive knowledge know-how developer.

* CloudHawk, acquired in June 2021, a developer of cloud safety know-how.

* Spot, acquired in June 2020, a developer of know-how to handle and optimize compute on public clouds by in search of the lowest-cost spot situations of compute.

* CloudJumper, acquired in April 2020, a developer of know-how to construct a single administration platform that mixes VDI (digital desktop infrastructure) with the underpinning storage and knowledge providers infrastructure that delivers high-performance, easily-managed digital desktops throughout public clouds.

Lye leaves fairly a legacy at NetApp, mentioned John Woodall, vice chairman of engineering and NetApp enablement at Normal Datatech, a Dallas-based answer supplier and longtime NetApp channel associate.

“He’s the man that got here into NetApp, a storage vendor, however wasn’t a storage man,” Woodall advised CRN. “He was a cloud and providers man. He had the imaginative and prescient to take NetApp down the trail to make cloud a part of its portfolio. With Lye, NetApp was capable of differentiate itself and stake a stable place within the hybrid multi-cloud world.”

Lye was in a novel place at NetApp as he needed to find out about NetApp whereas NetApp needed to find out about him, Woodall mentioned.

“Ultimately, NetApp discovered a steadiness between its cloud enterprise and legacy storage,” he mentioned. “At present, analysts and prospects have a look at NetApp in a different way. He drove native cloud integration past the cloud market into each IaaS and PaaS, and shifted NetApp from a storage vendor to a knowledge providers and knowledge administration firm.”

NetApp needs to be able the place it might probably proceed to develop its cloud providers capabilities regardless of the departure of Lye, Woodall mentioned.

“If you happen to requested me one or one-and-a-half years in the past, I’d’ve mentioned NetApp has huge sneakers to fill,” he mentioned. “However once I have a look at at present’s NetApp management workforce and their background in cloud and software program, they’ll proceed to leverage what Anthony began.”