What’s a Storage Vendor Like You Doing in a Place Like This?
Steve Mudd
It’s a question we hear a lot at conferences, especially those—like KubeCon and DevOps Enterprise Summit (DOES)—focused on the developer community. What does a storage hardware vendor have to do with application development, containers, and cloud-native software?
The answer is that we are undergoing our own transformation, bringing our deep knowledge of data storage to the hybrid cloud. The lessons we’ve learned—and the solutions we now offer—bring a wealth of value to DevOps workflows. Here are a few examples:
- NetApp is the only storage vendor with modules certified through the Red Hat Ansible Automation Certification Program—and we’re one of the top publishers. With Ansible, we’re seeing customers able to execute infrastructure requests 50-70% faster than before.
- We have more than 500 customers using the Trident dynamic storage orchestrator in production with over 3.5PB of storage. The orchestrator simplifies the consumption of persistent volumes in Kubernetes.
- We recently announced Project Astra, a Kubernetes-native software-defined application lifecycle platform that will deliver robust storage, easy-to-consume data services, and application and data portability.
There are more exciting DevOps capabilities in the works. Stay tuned.
Today, we’re no longer a hardware company. Our own IT team has embraced DevOps to accelerate our digital transformation. Our product development teams are solidly focused on defining the next generation of software-defined storage, software-defined infrastructure, and software-defined application lifecycle management.
The industry is taking note. IDC recently wrote a report about our transformation, “A New NetApp is on the Rise.” Remarkably, the report was not commissioned by NetApp, but instead took shape as IDC noted our recent rise and transformation. I encourage you to read the report and take another look at NetApp.
Steve Mudd
Steve Mudd leads content and messaging strategy for the Hybrid Cloud Services business unit at NetApp. In this role, he delivers provocative content that tells complicated stories in creative and authentic ways. Steve has a long history as an IT storyteller, working for Ogilvy on brands such as IBM, Lenovo, Level 3 Communications, and Iron Mountain. He was also the host of the popular Ogilvy Podcast. Prior to Ogilvy, he marketed wind energy for Xcel Energy, helped transform sales and marketing for Encyclopaedia Britannica, and was a tour guide for the Coors Brewery. He also wrote, directed, and produced the feature film Seclusion. He holds a BA in English from the University of Wyoming.
