NetApp, a provider of storage and data management solutions for various industries, will invest $75 million to expand its Wake County, North Carolina, operations center in the 7,000-acre Research Triangle Park, creating 460 jobs.

The firm plans to establish a new research and development facility at RTP Industrial park, 12 Davis Drive, in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, near Durham. According to the North Carolina Department of Commerce, the new RTP data center will leverage the latest virtualization solutions to build a private cloud environment that provides virtual access for NetApp engineering labs around the world. It will also serve as a model for customers interested in building energy-efficient dynamic data centers and cloud environments for their enterprise users.

Gov Bev Perdue's Office said the project was made possible, in part, by a state grant from the Job Development Investment Grant.

"Creating jobs is what motivates me every day," said Gov. Perdue. "North Carolina is a tremendous place to do business and our highly-skilled workforce is equipped to support high tech companies like NetApp in their desire to expand here."

"NetApp has had a long and successful presence in Research Triangle Park and we are excited to build on our relationship with the state of North Carolina, Wake County, and the surrounding area," said Denise Cox, senior vice president of Global Support for NetApp. "NetApp takes pride in attracting and retaining the industry's best people and our expansion in RTP will enable us to continue to help our customers achieve business success. Our company culture of living our values and embracing strong principles while treating employees as our greatest asset is at the core of why we are widely considered a best place to work."

"NetApp has a great history in the Triangle, and we're pleased to see the company continue to grow here," said Sen. Josh Stein of Wake County. "I'm confident that our well-trained workforce and business-friendly climate will help them remain successful."

Compensation will vary by job function, but the average annual compensation for the new positions will be approximately $100,000, plus benefits. The average annual wage in Wake County is $45,396, North Carolina Department of Commerce officials said.

As an incentive the state Economic Investment Committee awarded a Job Development Investment Grant to NetApp. JDIGs are awarded only to new and expanding businesses and industrial projects whose benefits exceed the costs to the state and which would not be undertaken in North Carolina without the grant.

Under the terms of JDIG, the company is eligible to receive a grant equal to 65 percent of the state personal income withholding taxes derived from the creation of new jobs for each of the 10 years in which the company meets annual performance targets. If NetApp meets the targets called for under the agreement and sustains them for 10 years, the JDIG could yield as much as $11.78 million in maximum benefits for the company.