Tom Georgens | NetApp Customer Day at VMworld 2012
Channel: SiliconANGLE theCUBE
Date: 10/09/2012

The Cube - NetApp Customer Day at VMworld 2012 - Tom Georgens, NetApp, with Dave Vellante
Better cloud interoperability – a not-so-lofty goal for NetApp in its audacious push to establish Data ONTAP as a common fabric for private, hybrid and public cloud environments. NetApp is introducing a new solution for migrating data between on- and off-premise infrastructure with today’s launch of a Universal Data Platform, a potential game-changer in the software-defined world that connects disparate clouds and rethinks the physical positioning of storage closer to the compute.  With this, NetApp is making things more streamlined for data access, management and especially automation.  NetApp is promising “more consistent data management” for today’s software-defined infrastructure, recognizing that clouds need more interconnectivity to promote the kind of automation standards required for the future success of efficient IT systems.

    Hyperscale support across borders

The company’s soon-to-be-unveiled portability technology performs on-the-fly “hypervisor translations” to greatly simplify workload migration between disparate ONTAP deployments. The offering is designed to complement NetApp’s existing SnapMirror tool, which will be enhanced to better support replication between private and public clouds.  The big perk here is the added support for hyperscale clouds, particularly those powered by Amazon AWS and Azure, with big expectations for the establishment of Google’s hyperscale offerings as well.

“One big promise of the cloud is what we’re seeing from Amazon and Google to enable more IaaS and make it more affordable,” says Phil Brotherton, VP, Cloud Solutions Group at NetApp.  The adoption of these hyperscale cloud services is driving development for more compatable management tools from legacy companies and disruptors alike, while also presenting an opportunity for NetApp to get in front of the curve.

    Virtualization is key

Virtualization is key to NetApp’s Universal Data Platform, envisioning a future where software-only delivery will be a truly viable and expected option, putting the app front-and-center.  NetApp presents ING (now Capital One 360) as a case study, demonstrating a “Bank-in-a-Box” solution with a fully virtualized app landscape that combines compute, memory and storage.

“You want it to be virtualized so it can be automated,” Brotherton starts, going on to explain the key benefit of this approach to the cloud as speedier production cycles.  “The next step with ING is clear — extend this to Azure because the connections to Microsoft are strong.  We provide things like more DR, and access to data through Azure.  It’s where hybrid IT comes in.”