Why Is Private Cloud a Key Strategy for NetApp Partners?

Enterprises are working to rapidly transform not only how they do business in today’s cloud-enabled world, but also how they can use technology to further drive positive change. It’s obvious now that the public cloud is not the final end state for infrastructure and that private cloud has reemerged as a critical element of any hybrid multicloud strategy. With this knowledge, it’s critical that NetApp partners like you understand the importance of private cloud and why it’s a key component of any future customer strategy.

Let’s quickly define private cloud (sometimes called on-premises cloud). A typical private cloud infrastructure is one in which none of the resources are shared with any other tenant. It could be in a colocation, on the premises, or in a managed service provider data center, but it’s deployed only as a single tenant. Reasons for this single tenancy vary, but it’s often based on the need for greater security, more compliance, and reduced business risk. A company might also want greater performance, along with more control and visibility into its overall IT infrastructure. This kind of flexibility also allows customers to better balance and time their transition to cloud.

Private clouds, though, are more than just typical data centers. Private clouds are a modern infrastructure that’s designed to deliver today’s applications while supporting tried-and-true redundancy for legacy architectures. And therein lies your opportunity.

What Customers Want

Customers want faster deployment of new services and applications so that they can keep pace in today’s highly competitive market. Perhaps they have deployed a DevOps process and rely on working quickly without the IT overhead that’s traditionally incurred by legacy applications. New, modern applications offer greater services (for example, container services and load-balancing services) and are easy to deploy, with minimal up-front cost and preparation.

Because some of their applications might already be in the cloud, customers seek a consistent look and feel—a cloudlike experience for their on-premises applications as well. The great thing about private cloud is that it allows deployment of simplified cloud applications while retaining the advantages of on-premises environments. At the same time, customers can still retain their data center by making private clouds an integral part of their company’s digital transformation.

Private Cloud Market Growth

Frankly, there will always be a need for on-premises applications. The proof is in the market data. Private cloud continues to grow; it’s projected to reach over $14,111 million by 2023, according to Allied Market Research. So, yes, there will be a lot of opportunity for a good long time. There are many reasons for this vast opportunity, and here are just a few:

• A customer’s infrastructure often has existing, legacy applications in place. New applications might be created that need to communicate with those legacy applications. In that scenario, it might make sense to keep it in-house.
• A customer might have financial considerations, also, for keeping applications on the premises.
• Some customers evaluate their strategy and come back to private cloud from public cloud for some of their application needs.
• Based on the need to scale performance to meet peak traffic periods, customers with e-commerce needs might transfer data back and forth between private and public clouds.
• For some customers, it’s a capital expenditure (capex) versus pay-as-you-go (operational expenditures, or opex) decision.

Why Should You Consider a Private Cloud Strategy?

Besides the fact that your customers need it and there’s a sizable market for it, for you as a partner, private cloud is a scalable business model. It aligns with your business strengths and capabilities and allows you to select your areas of focus. A single infrastructure for multiple applications is easier to scale as customer and environment needs change. This flexibility opens up a world of opportunity as you are able to balance private, public, and hybrid cloud models to support your customers’ unique paths to digital transformation.

Opportunities include modernization of infrastructure to support scalable, new cloudlike experiences. Legacy infrastructure and applications will likely benefit from upgrades too. Private cloud offers your customers a segue to hybrid cloud that’s supported by the NetApp^® Data Fabric. Key private cloud use cases include:

• Virtualized environments
• Application development, testing, and portability
• Regulatory compliance
• Cost control
• Private cloud storage infrastructure

Increase Your Differentiated Value as a Partner

It’s well known that profitable partners create business value by building and delivering services, applying their expertise to the private cloud arena. When you make full use of your investments in multivendor support and services, you can further differentiate yourself, often leading to deeper customer engagements and deal expansions. Some potential support offerings to consider include:

• Private cloud, hybrid cloud, and cloud consulting
• Professional services: design, installation, deployment
• Support services
• Upgrade and lifecycle management

How NetApp Can Help

NetApp makes private cloud delivery simple, with an extensive library of NetApp Verified Architectures for best-in-class applications. Our verified architectures include support for both VMware private clouds and NetApp HCI for Private Cloud with Red Hat, as well as many other solutions. They are fully designed and tested by NetApp and by our industry-leading technology partners, reducing your risk and go-to-market costs. Just add your technology relationships, services, and support, and you are ready to sell. You can find the list of NetApp Verified Architectures in the NetApp technical documents library.

The other great thing about NetApp private cloud solutions is that you have an extensive NetApp product portfolio to select from that gives you true flexibility in designing just the right solution for your customers. Coupled with our Unified Partner Program offerings, as a NetApp partner, you are uniquely equipped to deliver NetApp private cloud solutions to customers.

What’s Next?

What services and offerings is your company uniquely qualified to deliver that can generate considerable business value to your customers?

Review our resources to help you build a strategy and differentiate yourself to stay ahead of the competition. Read IDC’s perspective on The Evolution of Hyperconvergence and NetApp's Role in This Rapidly Expanding Market. And check out the NetApp brief Deliver Private Cloud at Scale with NetApp HCI. Explore the private cloud solutions that NetApp offers and consider how private cloud fits within your cloud and hybrid cloud strategy.