AWS just gave the financial services industry even more reason to bank on NetApp

What? I thought we were in the trust tree… in the nest. Are we not?
—Frank the Tank (Will Ferrell), Old School

Trust. There are few industries in which trust is more vital than the financial services industry (FSI). After all, customers’ livelihoods are at stake. Missteps can be costly in terms of expense, reputation, or, most likely… both. Throw in ransomware concerns and increasing regulatory pressures, and it’s no wonder that this already conservative industry is as trust-hesitant as Frank.

Well, the pace of change in FSI isn’t waiting for anyone. Market conditions—increased customer expectations, new competition from fintech, and even events such as the global pandemic—are forcing FSI companies to speed up their cloud plans. Those who embrace this approach to innovation can more quickly use AI to tap into the massive amounts of data spread throughout their repositories to help combat fraud. They can also free up precious capital by building compliant and resilient infrastructure that scales up (and down) on demand and respond to competitive changes with smarter, more agile applications.

As the industry-leading advisor to more than 9,000 FSI organizations worldwide, NetApp has been earning the trust of banks, payment providers, insurance companies, and investment firms of all sizes as they navigate the performance and security challenges of digital modernization. NetApp^® solutions, products, and expertise help guide FSI organizations every step of the way, increasing efficiency, security, and customer satisfaction, while reducing cost and risk.

A key part of this equation is the NetApp Cloud Volumes platform, which offers a comprehensive portfolio of data services centered on data management features from NetApp ONTAP^® software. Many of these institutions already use ONTAP on premises, and it can be extended to their AWS environments. ONTAP allows IT professionals to confidently replicate their unstructured data in the cloud, even when that data carries multifaceted security requirements. In AWS, they simply deploy the same ONTAP based tools from their on-premises environment—along with any other security tools they use—for a unified approach to cyber resilience. They can also tap the same Microsoft Active Directory controls, policies, and encryption protocols they’re using on premises.

“I’m so confident in ONTAP because it’s very mature software that’s always being enhanced, and now you can get that same experience in the cloud,” says Jeff Levinson, solution architect at NetApp partner CDW.

Well, things just got a whole lot trustier.

We’re incredibly thrilled to announce that NetApp recently earned AWS Financial Services Competency Partner status, validating NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP for AWS and our ability to help FSI firms upgrade and optimize their hybrid architecture. What’s more, NetApp is the only storage vendor to achieve this competency.

This honor differentiates NetApp as an AWS Partner Network (APN) member that provides specialized technical proficiency and proven success in delivering solutions to FSI on the AWS cloud. To receive the designation, AWS Partners must possess deep AWS expertise and the ability to seamlessly deliver solutions on AWS.

“To our financial services customers, it’s important to make sure they are working with vetted and validated solutions that are specific to their industry,” says Levinson. “We can now say to them, the partner (NetApp) you already trust has earned the trust of AWS with this solution competency. It takes the fear factor out of their journey to the cloud.”

Cloud Volumes ONTAP for AWS is the ideal solution to help FSI firms optimize cloud storage costs and performance while enhancing data protection, security, and compliance.

Business continuity and improved user experience. The multi-AZ high-availability configuration of Cloud Volumes ONTAP (available in all AWS regions) provides customers with a recovery time objective (RTO) or recovery point objective (RPO) that’s industry-leading. This capability maintains business continuity and improves user experience for financial services applications running in AWS.

Multiprotocol support. Cloud Volumes ONTAP supports multiple versions of SMB and NFS, as well as iSCSI for block-oriented workloads, giving customers the flexibility to migrate a wide range of workloads without refactoring.

Storage efficiencies. Cloud Volumes ONTAP reduces your data footprint with thin provisioning, deduplication, compaction, compression, and intelligent data tiering to low-cost object storage.

Enhanced security. Data is encrypted in transit and at rest and protected against cyberthreats and ransomware attacks. 

Data protection. Data stored with Cloud Volumes ONTAP is protected with the help of multiple built-in mechanisms for NetApp Snapshot^™ copies, backups, and disaster recovery, creating a highly resilient data layer in AWS. 

Disaster recovery in the cloud. The NetApp SnapMirror^® feature lets you replicate data from an on-premises ONTAP environment to Cloud Volumes ONTAP in AWS easily and cost efficiently, with no data loss and no need to refactor applications.  

Lower TCO due to data tiering. NetApp Cloud Tiering powered by FabricPool technology automatically tiers infrequently used data at the block level to S3 object storage. 

Data management for containerized environments. Kubernetes integration with NetApp Astra^™ Trident enables advanced data management directly from Kubernetes. 

Accelerated DevTest. NetApp FlexClone^® technology provides instant writable zero-capacity clones of storage volumes, speeding up testing and QA. It also gives DevTest teams safe access to a clone of a storage volume with no risk of a user accidentally deleting the original copy of data. 

A complete approach. Cloud Volumes ONTAP is natively integrated with the other services of the Cloud Volumes platform to maintain protection, security, and compliance. NetApp Cloud Backup can provide immutable Snapshot protection, and NetApp Cloud Data Sense offers data classification, governance, and compliance scanning/reporting for all Cloud Volumes ONTAP data. And Cloud Secure, a feature of NetApp Cloud Insights, uses AI/ML to identify anomalous user activity, so you can take proactive steps toward resolution.

As the only storage vendor to become an AWS Financial Services Competency Partner, NetApp has earned the added trust of FSI firms for shifting their unstructured data to the cloud. They’re quickly streamlining operations and more:

• Automating to optimize costs and free IT staff from repetitive manual processes
• Enhancing visibility for sensitive information to tighten security and compliance
• Tapping readily available analytics tools to shape informed business decisions

For a deeper look into the benefits of moving your unstructured data to AWS, grab a free copy of our white paper, Unlocking the Value of Data in the Cloud for Financial Services.

As the industry-leading advisor to FSI organizations worldwide, NetApp has the expertise and experience to guide your move to AWS with maximum trust and minimum risk. Learn more by visiting our AWS industry solutions page.

Whenever you’re ready, connect with a NetApp AWS specialist who will address your organization’s needs, answer your questions, and help you get more from AWS at less cost.

Finally, learn more about CDW, a NetApp partner that brings skills and technologies to solve FSI challenges.