NetApp launches BlueXP as single console across on-prem and cloud
NetApp has introduced BlueXP, a hybrid- and multicloud storage administration platform that goals to provide prospects a single view of their on-premise and cloud NetApp storage, with the flexibility to observe efficiency, migrate knowledge between places, and predict capability and efficiency bottlenecks.
The announcement got here on the firm’s Insight events this week. NetApp additionally introduced an improve to its Ontap working system, which launched S3 entry, and full integration of its Instaclustr and CloudCheckr acquisitions to its Spot cloud administration platform.
BlueXP will present a single management airplane by which all NetApp storage is seen. That contains on-site Ontap (NAS, and many others), E-Series (flash-equipped SAN) and StorageGrid (object storage), as nicely as NetApp storage in AWS, Azure, Google and IBM public clouds.
The purpose is for a single, unified surroundings across the datacentre and cloud(s) that may enable knowledge to be moved and synchronised between them. Drag-and-drop operations or use of menus are the means for such performance.
Ronen Schwartz, NetApp SVP and GM for cloud storage, stated BlueXP is a response to prospects who wish to simplify their operations across on-site and probably a number of cloud places.
Customers will broadly be capable of take two approaches – one the place they’ve detailed management over all facets of storage administration, and one the place they’ll accept BlueXP-generated suggestions.
“The journey to the cloud has been happening for a long time now and for most customers, it is hybrid- and multicloud and on-prem,” stated Schwartz. “We name it ‘the evolving cloud’, by which IT departments are requested to do extra to assist their very own datacentre, a cloud they use steadily and perhaps one other cloud too.
“Customers want simplicity, and help in multicloud environments with security, compliance, consistency, sustainability and to make savings.”
Workloads envisaged by which BlueXP may assist prospects could be these such as “customers running new SAP workloads, including Hana, where operations spanned on-prem and cloud working”, stated Schwartz.
NetApp’s BlueXP transfer is much like the route different storage suppliers are taking, such as Pure Storage with its Pure1 platform, which integrates monitoring of its merchandise across buyer estates with consumption fashions of buying.
Meanwhile, upgrades to Ontap embody tamper-proof – ie, non-deletable – snapshots to deal with ransomware. But a key announcement right here is that every one knowledge saved in Ontap can be accessible by way of S3 instructions.
The concept right here is that knowledge can be saved in S3 as a tiering layer, or “an efficiency layer”, stated Schwartz, which can point out longer entry occasions.
But the combination of S3 accessibility is an fascinating growth that might enchantment to customers of, for instance, synthetic intelligence/machine studying (AI/ML) workloads the place they wish to retain giant quantities of unstructured knowledge in object storage and more-rapidly accessible block and file knowledge, all beneath NetApp Ontap-based {hardware}.
Here once more, this displays strikes amongst storage suppliers to offer file-based and object storage in the identical array. The driver right here is elevated prevalence of demand for unstructured knowledge storage in each codecs ensuing from AI/ML and analytics operations, and its use in knowledge warehouse and knowledge lake situations.
