NetApp and Google Cloud launch Managed Storage Service

NetApp and Google Cloud have revealed a continuation of their collaboration, aiming to provide enhanced storage performance alongside cloud-based ease and adaptability. This expansion introduces Google Cloud NetApp Volumes as a fully managed, native service on the Google Cloud platform. This advancement empowers customers to effortlessly transfer mission-critical workloads from both Windows and Linux environments to Google Cloud, confining demanding scenarios such as VMware and SAP migrations. In addition, this migration can be achieved without the need to modify code or overhaul existing processes.

“NetApp’s innovative offering with Google Cloud sets the standard for enterprise-class features in public cloud file storage, establishing a benchmark for the industry,” said Dave McCarthy, Research Vice President of Cloud and Edge Infrastructure Services at IDC. “The recognition of NetApp’s name alongside the cloud provider in this first-party service underscores its commitment to driving cutting-edge cloud storage solutions that address customer and market challenges.”

Google Cloud NetApp Volumes is based on NetApp ONTAP data management software and cloud services. Available now, the partnership enables customers to seamlessly extend their workloads into Google Cloud through an automated storage service. It is fully integrated into its service ecosystem, providing enterprise-grade storage, data protection, and business continuity across workloads.

“By extending our collaboration with Google Cloud, NetApp is putting ONTAP storage and data management capabilities into the hands of Google Cloud customers as a first-party service, making it simple to use enterprise-grade storage in their critical workloads, optimize file storage, and support Windows, Linux, SAP and VMware workloads,” said Ronen Schwartz, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Cloud Storage at NetApp. “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.”

“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,” said Sameet Agarwal, Vice President and General Manager, Google Cloud Storage. “We’re thrilled to enhance our File Solutions portfolio by continuing our partnership with NetApp, bringing the flexibility of the cloud to our customers alongside data protection and efficiency.”

Key factors of Google Cloud NetApp Volumes include:

• Enterprise-grade, multiprotocol file shares with rich SMB and NFS protocol support for the most demanding Windows or Linux workloads, including Google Cloud’s only storage service to support protocols such as SMB and NFSv4.1(and v3)
• Support for instant capacity additions or changes between performance tiers – without downtime – resulting in the ability to balance investment/performance in real-time
• Built-in data protection that creates efficient, block-level incremental backups that don’t impact uptime or performance while meeting RTO/RPO parameters to ensure optimum application availability

“As an existing NetApp customer leveraging Cloud Volumes ONTAP and Cloud Volumes Service on Google Cloud, we are thrilled to embrace the new Google Cloud NetApp Volumes,” said Anthony Lloyd, Vice President of Technology Services at OpenText. “This fully managed file storage service will provide seamless migration of enterprise applications. Likewise, Kubernetes, to Google Cloud without refactoring code or redesigning processes. Ultimately, it will simplify operations across all our IT environments.”