NetApp Strategy Built On Clustered Data ONTAP

Jay Kidd, SVP and CTO, NetApp, Inc., said: "Regardless of the ultimate computing destination, the CIO will maintain ownership of the organization’s data. The introduction of new multicloud architectures makes data governance more complex because data is distributed, and not under direct control. Our vision is to create an enterprise data management solution, with the clustered Data ONTAP OS at its core, which will span the customers’ storage landscape, irrespective of data type or location."

CIOs are moving from being builders and operators of data centers to becoming brokers of application and information services. They are embracing new technologies and service models to deliver IT faster, cheaper, and smarter, while making their companies more responsive and competitive.

Public cloud computing is at the forefront of this dramatic shift in IT. Organizations increasingly look to integrate public cloud services to offer predictable costs, faster provisioning, and infinite scale. More and more, organizations are turning to hybrid cloud environments to optimize costs, seize opportunities, and mitigate risks. In this reality, data must travel across multiple clouds seamlessly – from private to public to hybrid models – while providing IT with the necessary control to centrally manage, govern, and transport data across discrete cloud resources.

NetApp extended its strategy and commitment to provide cloud management across any blend of private and public cloud resources. This strategy is to use branded storage OS, Data ONTAP, as a universal data platform across cloud environments. Data ONTAP software will enable dynamic data portability across all clouds and will support extensive customer choice for application, technology, and cloud partner options. Already more than 175 cloud service providers deliver cloud services built on Data ONTAP. IDC has named NetApp Data ONTAP as the world’s number-one branded storage OS.

NetApp outlined its vision for seamless data management across any blend of private and public clouds.

Its vision centers on three pillars:

• The formation of a universal data platform with Data ONTAP software that removes the control challenges of managing discrete cloud resources. Data ONTAP builds on 20 years of innovation to provide customers with a common cloud data fabric and seamlessly connect cloud resources. NetApp will further integrate its software into existing and forthcoming private cloud, large-scale public cloud, and hyperscale cloud service provider solutions to help organizations optimize IT delivery and harness the speed, flexibility, and economics of the public cloud.
• The introduction of technology for dynamic data portability across cloud resources, whether on or off premises. NetApp will utilize its universal data container to make it easier to move data and workloads across instances of Data ONTAP in a multicloud environment, boosting IT efficiency and enabling new, and innovative hybrid cloud architectures.
• NetApp will continue to deliver solutions that support customer choice enabling companies to adopt the solutions for their business. With the broadest ecosystem of cloud providers, application, and technology partner options, NetApp meets the demands of diverse customer needs. NetApp and its global partners, in the coming months, will announce new solutions that accelerate the transition to hybrid cloud architectures. These announcements will include deeper integrations for business applications in the cloud, new converged infrastructure reference architectures, secure cloud backup, and DR solutions.

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Universal Data Platform Built on Clustered Data ONTAP
With more IT organizations complementing private cloud infrastructure with public cloud services, NetApp’s patented clustered Data ONTAP software provides a common fabric for storage and data management across all cloud resources. Available in NetApp optimized systems (FAS systems), for third-party hardware (V-Series), within converged infrastructures (the FlexPod data center platform), and as a virtual storage appliance for commodity disk drives (Data ONTAP-V), clustered Data ONTAP is a flexible and efficient storage platform that enables nondisruptive operations and near-infinite scalability.

• In the upcoming months, NetApp and Cisco Systems, Inc. will deepen the integration of clustered Data ONTAP into the FlexPod converged infrastructure with the introduction of new reference architectures aimed at large-scale cloud service provider and enterprise multi-tenant environments. The new features build on the success that more than 2,400 customers have had moving to private clouds with FlexPod.
• NetApp will continue to expand its in the software-defined storage market with clustered Data ONTAP and enable application owners through API integrations. It includes expanded investments in connecting to hyperscale cloud service providers, more robust quality-of-service capabilities, and expanded API integrations with emerging solutions like OpenStack and CloudStack.

Dynamic Data Portability Across Clouds
NetApp allows customers to move data and workloads with ease across all instances of Data ONTAP in a multicloud environment. At Oracle OpenWorld (September 24-27) NetApp will showcase technology for ‘on-the-fly’ hypervisor translation as workloads travel across disparate environments. This technology will complement an existing product portfolio for data transport that includes SnapMirror technology, a data replication software. It will be enhanced to support replication of data to private or public cloud resources for data protection and DR.

Choices for Technologies,
Applications and Public cloud Service Providers
NetApp will continue to provide customer choices for hybrid cloud operations while avoiding competition with its ecosystem of public cloud service provider partners. As part of its strategy, NetApp supports all major cloud operating environments, virtualization frameworks, application deployment models, and cloud management solutions. In the upcoming months, the company will announce integrations with providers in each of these key areas, including new contributions to OpenStack and CloudStack, and new partnerships with large-scale hyperscale cloud service providers.

More than 175 cloud service providers deliver services built on NetApp storage. Those partners offer more than 300 NetApp-based cloud services to the market. Microsoft Corp. who recently named NetApp Server Partner of the Year, and last year named NetApp Private cloud Partner of the Year.