NetApp and VMware have integrated AWS FSx for ONTAP with the VMware Cloud on AWS (VMC) so VMC can use external, cloud-native ONTAP storage.
FSx for ONTAP (FSxN) is a fully managed ONTAP file system in AWS with ONTAP APIs, data reduction, and data protection features. VMware Cloud on AWS was launched in 2017 with joint VMware and AWS engineering efforts and mimics the on-premises VMware environment in the AWS cloud. Virtual machine (VM) workloads can be migrated between the on-premises and AWS environments using VMware Cloud for AWS.
Phil Brotherton, VP Solutions & Alliances at NetApp, said: “VMware customers running on NetApp or non-NetApp storage on-premises can now access the enterprise-class public cloud storage services and features of ONTAP, all running in an AWS native experience, as the first certified and supported supplemental datastore to VMware Cloud on AWS.”
Narayan Bharadwaj, VP Cloud Solutions at VMware, added: “The majority of enterprises today run workloads on a VMware platform. Whether that is on premises or in VMware Cloud on AWS, they want to be able to leverage consistency in operations and architecture. NetApp and VMware are giving customers the flexibility to buy and configure cloud storage independent of compute to meet the needs of a wide variety of enterprise applications.”
The two say customers can migrate data-intensive on-premises VMware workloads to VMware Cloud more easily, and better control costs by independently scaling cloud compute and cloud storage (FSxN). They can also use existing VMware-centric resource investments on-premises including people, processes and technologies, and in the cloud for consistency of operations. Ditto NetApp skills and resources.
In March VMware previewed a managed Cloud Flex Storage file service for VMware Cloud on AWS, based on its Datrium acquisition. Now it is cosying up to NetApp and its 20,000 ONTAP user base.
Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP supplemental datastore for VMware Cloud on AWS is available today.
There are possibilities for duplicating this deal in Azure and in GCP.
NetApp and VMware announced co-engineered multi-cloud certification, improved Kubernetes application development and deployment, enhanced access to vVols using NVMe-oF, and the ability to use NFS 4.1 with VMware VMs and ONTAP storage only yesterday.
There’s more information on a NetApp blog.
