Expanded data fabric solutions and services speed data access and visibility, enhance data protection and security
“This is the cloud portfolio we were looking for; our lives couldn’t have been made simpler,” said Iain Rouse, group director—Cloud, 
Technology One. “After a flood caused a three-day outage, we basically sat down and said, ‘Never again,’ and began working with NetApp and AWS. They take care of some very complex engineering on our behalf. Best of all, we consume this as a monthly fee.”
NetApp today announced new data fabric solutions and services that maximize control and improve the secure movement of data across the hybrid cloud. The company also introduced new versions of NetApp® AltaVault™, StorageGRID® Webscale, and SnapCenter® technologies to help customers extract the value of their data from anywhere in the hybrid cloud.
“Enterprises are broadening their vision of cloud to include transformation of the existing applications and IT environments, making them more scalable, extensible, and agile,” said Rick Villars, vice president, Datacenter and Cloud, IDC. “Data management services such as NetApp’s new data fabric solutions will enable the effective movement and control of data within corporate datacenters and across a growing range of cloud environments.”
New Data Fabric Solutions and Services
As customers evolve their IT for the digital era, they want the flexibility to leverage data and compute resources from anywhere. NetApp’s new data fabric solutions and services allow customers to control, manage, secure, and move data across on-premises and public cloud resources to architect the IT environment that best meets their needs. Today’s announcements include:
- Cloud Sync Service—This on-demand software-as-a-service offering simplifies cloud service usage by allowing users to continuously move and synchronize data between on-premises storage and Amazon Web Services (AWS) Simple Storage Service (S3) in the cloud. Customers gain greater visibility into data by seamlessly leveraging AWS analytics tools with on-premises data. They experience a lower total cost of ownership by paying only for cloud resources when needed. Cloud Sync is currently available through AWS Marketplace.
- NetApp Private Storage (NPS) as a Service—NetApp is expanding the availability of NPS for Cloud by making it available as a service through a growing partner delivery ecosystem, including Arrow, Faction, ASE, DARZ, and ThinkOn. This new opex-based consumption model, which leverages colocation partners such as Equinix, enables customers to scale cloud capacity, performance, and cost. With NetApp’s patent-pending architecture, customers can also securely and simultaneously connect to multiple public clouds.
- Cloud Control for Microsoft Office 365—This SaaS offering provides a simple way to control and protect critical data stored in Microsoft Office 365, including SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Exchange Online. The offering also provides support for data retention in cloud services such as Amazon S3 and Azure as well as on-premises storage.
- Cloud Backup Solution—Adding to the existing Data Fabric Solution for Cloud Disaster Recovery, this solution delivers simplified end-to-end cloud backup for NetApp ONTAP® customers using NetApp SnapMirror® technology. Through integration with AltaVault and SnapCenter, customers can now easily assign hybrid cloud backup targets and quickly search and recover files from on-premises and public cloud repositories.
“As the flexibility and economy of scale in IT continue to expand and as insights from distributed data become more critical, the case for the hybrid cloud has never been stronger,” said Tony Bishop, vice president, Enterprise Vertical Marketing, Equinix, Inc. “We’re excited to team with NetApp to help enterprises successfully deploy hybrid cloud architectures to maximize data visibility and the performance of their enterprise applications.”
NetApp also introduced new releases of:
- AltaVault—This cloud-integrated storage solution speeds recovery and reduces risk, enabling customers to securely back up data to on-premises and public clouds at up to 90% lower cost compared to traditional on-premises solutions. The new version includes integration with SnapMirror, which makes it easier for customers using ONTAP to back up to AltaVault.
- StorageGRID Webscale—NetApp’s object-based storage solution for web applications is designed for the hybrid cloud to store and manage massive datasets in a single global namespace. The new version offers a full solution stack integrated and distributed by NetApp. The solution also has improved data protection through support for Amazon S3 versioning and an enhanced user interface, including the capability to simulate the effects of changing data storage policies on billions of objects.
- SnapCenter—The latest release centralizes data protection and clone management with new application plug-ins, including the capability to create custom plug-ins for third-party applications and databases. The release also includes an intuitive graphical interface with predefined protection relationships and backup policies for cloud-integrated backup, which enables enterprises to protect more of their data across all application environments.
- Service-Level Implementation from NetApp Professional Services—This service bundle enables enterprises to provide storage services to their users just like a cloud provider. It also delivers processes and procedures that reduce the complexity and cost of storage operations while increasing performance.
“Building a hybrid cloud using NetApp’s data fabric solutions and services allows customers to efficiently control and secure their data while capitalizing on its value for maximum business benefit,” said Phil Brotherton, vice president, Cloud Business Unit, NetApp. “We’re partnering with the best and broadest set of ecosystem partners to ensure customers can plan and evolve their hybrid cloud deployments with on-premises and on-demand cloud capabilities that fit their changing business needs.”
