The NetApp fully managed Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud is now known as Google Cloud NetApp Volumes, with Google assuming the role of the primary provider and manager of the service.
It is based on NetApp’s ONTAP operating system and its file-based data functions running on the Google Cloud Platform as a native GCP service. It provides multi-access protocol support for NFS V3 and v4.1, as well as SMB, and has features such as snapshots, clones, replication, and cross-region backup. It is the only Google storage service supporting both NFS and SMB.
Sameet Agarwal, VP and GM for Google Cloud Storage, said: “Today’s announcement extends our ability to deliver first-party storage and enterprise data management services so organizations can rapidly deploy, run, protect, and scale enterprise workloads with the familiar tools and interface of Google Cloud.”
Ronen Schwartz, SVP and GM for Cloud Storage at NetApp, added: “We see our mission as creating cloud storage and data services that are as forward-thinking and easy to use as possible, and this partnership allows us to continue making this vision a reality.”
NetApp made its ONTAP services available on GCP back in 2018 and has the most comprehensive cross-cloud and on-premises file storage system offering available covering AWS, Azure, and Google. Customers with NetApp systems in their datacenters can use AWS, Azure, and GCP datacenters as extensions of their own for tiering, bursting, business continuity, disaster recovery, migration, etc.
Customers can run either Windows or Linux applications as virtual machines in a few clicks and without any refactoring. Storage volumes can scale from 100GiB to 100TiB. There is support for instant capacity additions or changes between performance tiers without downtime. Built-in block-level incremental backups provide protection without needing downtime or slowing app performance.
NetApp tells us that being a Google Cloud first-party service means that its customers now have a smoother and more integrated operational experience including:
- Full integration with Google Cloud Console, APIs, and gcloud CLI management
- Full integration with Google Cloud billing – no marketplace hoops to jump through, full-fledged burndown of the Google Cloud Committed Use Discounts (CUD) since this is a first-party offering
- Improved integration in IAM, Cloud Monitoring, and Cloud Logging for better resiliency
- Simplified UI, structured around user workflows in the Google Cloud ‘look and feel’
- Simplified and improved documentation, along with the Feedback button to send recommendations directly to Google Cloud
- Administrative volume and service actions
- SOC2 Trust Service Criteria – Type 1 compliant service operations and controls, inherited from Google Cloud
- Service Level Agreement of 99.95 percent for data plane without CRR (Cross-Region Replication) and 99.99 percent with CRR
NetApp will be working with Google Cloud on the feature roadmap and deeper integration with the array of Google Cloud services such as GCVE, GKE, etc. Read a Google blog and online NetApp documentation to find out more.
