Seeking That Hybrid Multicloud Thrill? NetApp is the Answer
Matthew Underhill
About a year ago, I started working on transforming my organisation’s entire infrastructure and data management strategy. During this time, we have had many pitches from all sorts of organisations who claim they can solve all our problems. I have also had many strange stares when I say I am not looking for the cloud (or just a cloud). If you are thinking of a strategy for your data and infrastructure today, it has to be hybrid multicloud.
NetApp have been talking about the Data Fabric for a number of years, and I would say that it’s all coming together now.
Looking at NetApp’s latest release has me very excited. The newest additions to the NetApp portfolio not only offer rock-solid NAS and SAN on premises, but also extend out to allow you to take advantages of cloud services. Of course, there is always the option to use Cloud Volumes ONTAP in the cloud, which is very helpful if you need to accelerate your time to cloud.
Some of the latest offerings are
- Azure NetApp Files (announced by Microsoft on 5/28)
- Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud
- Cloud Volumes ONTAP on Google Cloud
These are the perfect options if you are looking for high-performance, persistent storage in any of the major clouds.
Tools such as the NetApp Fabric Orchestrator give you one management plane with the ability to automate and optimise your Data Fabric across clouds. I think this is a great offering, especially coupled with other tools such as Cloud Insights. We all want that flexibility to deploy to different locations from just one place, but then be able to monitor from anywhere. These insights are vital and could save money or pre-empt services degradation.
Another fantastic offering that is really helping to shape the future of the hybrid cloud is NetApp HCI. (Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure).
NetApp HCI is making it even easier to deploy and use utilise your own hybrid cloud environment. I’m very excited to see how NetApp HCI has become a deployable region right from NetApp Cloud Central. Just some of these exciting things include NetApp Kubernetes Services and Cloud Volumes.
NetApp Kubernetes Services (NKS) offers an automated Kubernetes deployment engine, an application marketplace, as well as application orchestration, not only for any cloud but also straight to your HCI devices in your data centre. Simplifying Kubernetes deployments means you can get your environments up quicker and more easily than ever before.
Cloud Volumes are high-performance, persistent storage units that are delivered through a streamlined and simplified user experience into any of the three major clouds plus right to the NetApp HCI in your data centre.
These are only some of the many things NetApp are doing to provide a true hybrid multicloud experience. I can’t wait to see what the future holds!
Matthew Underhill
Matt is the Head of Global Infrastructure at Alfred H Knight (AHK) based in Liverpool, UK. AHK has been providing scientific support to the mining industry since 1881. Matt has over a decade of IT experience, and has been working with NetApp since 2016. When he's not designing and implementing IT infrastructure at work, he can be found in front of his BBQ/smoker working on perfecting the perfect smoked delights. He's also an animal lover, with a whole farm's worth of critters in his back garden. Matt would say he's an "urban chicken keeper, a Jack Russel tamer, and a rabbit wrangler."
