NetApp partners build upon NetApp Private Storage for AWS

For the first time customers could combine the power of Amazon EC2 with the advantages of maintaining data on private NetApp storage. The solution helps organizations gain the flexibility and low-cost of hyperscale public cloud, while maintaining the performance, availability, and control of their data using familiar enterprise storage.

Over the past year, we’ve seen tremendous interest in this solution across a variety of use cases including business application disaster recovery, application development and test, high performance web services using NFS and CIFS, video transcoding and content distribution, medical records management, and financial service applications, to name a few.

Partner Momentum
Equally exciting is the range of managed services and technology partners joining the ecosystem to add further value to NetApp Private Storage for AWS.

Technology Partners including Hotlink, Cognizant and CommVault unlock valuable new functionality for end users. Hotlink for example opens up hybrid IT manageability for enterprises using VMware vCenter. Patented transformation technologies let VMware data centers seamlessly leverage AWS for a unified on- and off-premises computing and management solution with NetApp Private Storage for AWS. Cognizant offers Cloud360 a hybrid IT management solution that will help the IT organization evolve into the role of service broker with provisioning and orchestration across private infrastructure and public cloud as well as managed replication and automated recovery of applications and production data in the cloud. Finally, many customers want a low-cost, disk-based option for long term data retention. CommVault Simpana® software extends NetApp Private Storage for AWS to provide a reliable disk-to-disk-to-cloud backup and archive solution.

Managed service providers Blue River IT, Avnet / Peak, Zadara, Smartronix, and Day1 Solutions provide integration, support and one-stop shopping making it easy for customers to consume a combination of NetApp and AWS. Each one has unique differentiation. Blue River has deployed many of the first disaster recovery use cases and has deep expertise in both AWS and NetApp. Avnet offers CloudAttach Powered by Peak, a channel-ready NetApp OPEX and EC2 solution. With Zadara elastic NetApp Private Storage for AWS customers can now access a web portal to quickly deploy Amazon EC2 and NetApp together and pay by the hour. Smartronix Intelligent Cloud Hub combines FlexPod and AWS in a service that is ideal for running high IOPs business apps. Day1 Solutions supports a variety of NetApp Private Storage for AWS deployment models and can even help to deploy Direct Connect from AWS to on-premises datacenters.

Finally I should mention that the ecosystem of Direct Connect enabled co-location facilities continues to expand, allowing NetApp Private Storage for AWS to be used in more locations around the world. Equinix, who provides the lion’s share of the Direct Connect enabled co-los, recently added a data center in Seattle close to the AWS US West-Oregon and GovCloud Regions. We are also excited to see Eircom open the first low-latency Direct Connect facility in Dublin near the Amazon EU-Ireland Region. This now creates opportunities for European companies to broaden their use of NetApp Private Storage for AWS.

It’s clear that customers are seeking better ways to leverage a combination of resources that span public clouds and their own private datacenters. It’s also clear that storage and data management among this blend of resources is a huge challenge, as IT organizations strive to maintain the levels of data control they’ve worked so hard to achieve with their private datacenter environments. NetApp Private Storage for AWS helps to address this challenge head on by creating a common set of data services between premise-based private infrastructure and the public cloud, based on the power and versatility of Data ONTAP. And, with the partnership ecosystem to help connect on-premises infrastructure with hyperscale cloud resources growing day by day, customers will see more choice, simpler deployment options, and enhanced functionality to help them along their hybrid IT journey.