NetApp first-party offerings propel hyperscalers forward on GigaOm Radar

Congratulations to our partners AWS, Microsoft, and Google Cloud, who were named Fast Movers on this year’s GigaOm Radar for High-Performance Cloud File Storage. It’s an honor to be a part of helping our hyperscaler partners achieve greater maturity and innovation in high-performance file storage for the cloud.

In 2013, we shipped our first cloud-based storage solutions. Since then, we’ve been hyper-focused on providing an ambitious roadmap along with our hyperscaler partners—pushing the limits of performance, cost efficiency, and cyber resilience while simplifying management and enabling seamless data mobility.

This dedication is reflected once again in this year’s Radar report, which positions NetApp as an Outperformer in the inner Leaders circle. But there’s something else that’s truly monumental about this year’s report. This is the first year that NetApp^® technology is also available as a first-party offering in all three major hyperscalers: AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.

If you look at this year’s report, you’ll notice NetApp in the center, with AWS and Microsoft rapidly advancing as Fast Movers in the Challengers circle. In the Entrants circle, you’ll now see Google Cloud poised to challenge its peers with a powerful new offering: Google Cloud NetApp Volumes. The one thing they all have in common? NetApp ONTAP^® data management software.

Announced in August 2023, Google Cloud NetApp Volumes is a fully managed file storage service that simplifies how you migrate and run your most demanding enterprise workloads in the cloud. Google Cloud NetApp Volumes lets you easily mount file shares on Google Compute Engine virtual machines and Google Cloud VMware Engine to reference the same shared data.

According to the GigaOm report, “Google Cloud file storage capabilities are improving, partly thanks to the availability of Google Cloud NetApp Volumes.”

Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP (FSx for ONTAP) brings the full capabilities of ONTAP to a native AWS-managed service, with full support for block and file storage for Windows and Linux workloads. At AWS re:Invent this year, AWS and NetApp announced a new FSx for ONTAP scale-out architecture. Now a single FSx for ONTAP storage system can deliver up to a whopping 36GB per second of throughput and 1.2 million IOPS—for performance that’s 9 times better than previous limits.

In the report, GigaOm noted that “FSx for NetApp ONTAP provides a proven, enterprise-grade cloud file storage experience for the AWS platform that is natively integrated into the AWS consumption model. It offers superior technical capabilities.... The solution follows NetApp ONTAP principles and scales to multiple petabytes in a single namespace.”

Azure NetApp Files is widely used as a shared file storage service across a variety of scenarios, such as migration (lift and shift) of Linux and Windows applications, SAP HANA, VMware, databases, high-performance compute (HPC) infrastructure and apps, and virtual desktop user profiles.

GigaOm says, “Azure NetApp Files consists of a first-party solution jointly developed by Microsoft and NetApp, using ONTAP running on NetApp bare metal systems, fully integrated in the Microsoft Azure cloud. This solution offers all the benefits customers expect from NetApp, among which are enterprise-grade features.”

We’ve built true cloud partnerships to the point that all three of the major hyperscalers chose to actually ship their own products built on NetApp technology. NetApp’s #1 position in the Leaders circle reflects our strategy of investing in true first-party cloud offerings.

We know that a majority of NetApp customers are augmenting their data center investment with two or more clouds to maintain a competitive edge. That poses a number of new challenges for them, including how to blend the best practices and technologies that they’ve relied on for decades with a new, dynamic cloud model. That’s why we’re investing in enabling our customers to store, manage, protect, and use their data everywhere, seamlessly, marrying the best of what they have today with the promise of the future.

We happen to think that this is what truly sets NetApp apart. GigaOm seems to agree: “Available as a first-party offering on all three major hyperscalers, NetApp offers an unrivaled set of enterprise-grade capabilities that enable seamless data mobility and a consistent, simplified operational experience. Cyber resiliency, data management, and data protection capabilities increase the overall value of the platform to offer an industry-leading cloud file storage experience.”

For more information, be sure to read the full GigaOm Radar for High-Performance Cloud File Storage report, which includes scannable comparison tables, evaluation metrics, and a detailed vendor analysis.