VMware Cloud Infrastructure and Management on NetApp

Cloud computing has quickly surfaced as an important IT initiative as more organizations evaluate alternatives to help manage the pace and growth of their business. To help accelerate customers’ transition to the cloud, at VMworld 2011, NetApp, Inc. and VMware, Inc. announced VMware cloud infrastructure and management on NetApp, a new joint solution that enables organizations to evolve to a secure cloud computing model at their own pace, gaining greater flexibility and efficiency without needing to rip and replace their existing infrastructure.

   
Key components of the VMware cloud infrastructure
               and management on NetApp solution.

The solution is documented in a best practices guide and helps customers evolve from a virtualized environment to a secure private, hybrid or public cloud infrastructure using integrated technologies that automate and centrally manage cloud environments, resulting in increased productivity and optimized service levels.  

VMware cloud infrastructure and management on NetApp simplifies the transition to a standardized, automated service-delivery model that scales with the business, allowing service providers, government agencies and universities, and enterprises to invest resources back into the business so they manage for the future and drive innovation throughout the organization.
 
The solution helps customers evolve to the next stage of the virtualization journey by creating a secure cloud infrastructure using proven, integrated technologies that automate and centrally manage cloud environments, resulting in productivity and optimized service levels.  

The cloud infrastructure solution combines NetApp’s Unified Storage Architecture and set of storage and data management capabilities built on Data ONTAP with VMware’s recently enhanced cloud infrastructure suite to deliver integration of cloud management, provisioning, and backup and recovery capabilities based on existing virtualized shared IT infrastructures. This combination enables organizations to transition to the cloud at their own pace, without the need to rip and replace their existing infrastructure.  

Core features include:

• Integrated data protection with VMware vCloud Director enables customizable backup and recovery of tenant data within minutes.  
• Intelligent policy-based provisioning of storage and infrastructure resources to meet stringent service-level agreements.  
• Secure isolation and control of multiple tenants (applications, organizations, clients, users and business units) on a flexible and efficient shared IT infrastructure.  

NetApp and VMware have a globally staffed, 24×7 direct contact path between the VMware and NetApp support organizations and leverage a Unified Support Lab where support engineers can reproduce customer environments, diagnose issues, and resolve customer cases. As customers continue to deploy cloud infrastructure environments, they want to be certain that their technology partners will continue to provide rapid and efficient support. The cooperative support process enables customer problems to be worked to completion in a seamless manner, with technical support engineers communicating directly with each other to resolve issues efficiently.  

Daniel Morgenstern, manager, Windows and Virtualization, Franklin University IT, said: "Franklin University is committed to providing our students with the educational resources and tools they need to succeed, and our IT infrastructure is a critical foundation to ensuring that happens. With VMware cloud infrastructure and management on NetApp, we were able to move to a secure private cloud that offers unprecedented flexibility to expand in any direction, fluidly move resources, and quickly provision services. As a result, we’ve been able to optimize our resources and focus on delivering the best education to our students."

Paul Giobbi, president, Zumasys, Inc., said: "Zumasys is focused on increasing the availability and affordability of cloud computing solutions for our customers. Using the cloud infrastructure and management solution based on VMware and NetApp, our customers can dynamically scale their applications and automatically self-provision server and storage resources. Customers can choose to keep some applications onsite, some in a public cloud, and some on the Zumasys platform with portability between locations. With this solution, we can provide a more flexible and affordable path to the cloud for our customers."

Chris Cummings, vice president of Products and Solutions Marketing, NetApp, said: "As enterprises look for ways to accelerate their businesses, they recognize that the decisions they make now affect not only how they compete today but also how prepared they are for the future. For many, there’s substantial upside to evolving from a virtualized environment to a cloud architecture. NetApp and VMware are delivering a secure, integrated solution that allows customers to build on their virtualized environments without having to rip and replace their current IT infrastructures. This saves invaluable time, money, and productivity that they can reinvest back in the business."

Gary Green, vice president, Global Strategic Alliances, VMware, said: "VMware and NetApp have built a strong relationship to deliver innovative solutions that help customers derive value from existing IT investments while preparing for the datacenter of the future. With this new solution, we’re taking another step forward in helping joint customers virtualize more of the IT environment – including their most demanding business-critical applications – to continue building the foundation for cloud computing."

Availability
The VMware and NetApp products that make up the VMware cloud infrastructure and management on NetApp solution are available and can be purchased from NetApp and VMware, or through the companies’ worldwide network of value-added authorized resellers, distributors and systems integrators.