Companies have more data today than ever. There’s data on desktops, on servers in the corporate data center, in the public cloud, and moving back and forth between them to take advantage of a hybrid cloud.
Simplifying that data movement is one of the biggest challenges companies face in taking advantage of the cloud. Concerns about the security of data in the cloud and the ability to avoid vendor lock-in and easily migrate data to another provider are among the top reasons enterprises are hesitant to commit key to the cloud. For those companies, using NetApp’s Data Fabric can overcome those challenges and enable efficient data movement in support of cloud workloads.
Equalizing Different Platforms
Making the hybrid cloud work requires the ability to move data where it’s needed. But hybrid environments by definition comprise different platforms, each with its own way of doing things. Companies may need to implement and support different methods of data transport depending on which vendor they are working with; the costs are equally variable. Applications that are based on existing protocols may need modification to work in cloud-based, service-oriented architectures.
The NetApp Data Fabric makes data more easily portable through its storage systems that span physical, virtual, and cloud architectures. Rather than dealing with specific protocols for every platform and application, there is a uniform architecture defining data formats, transport, security, and storage management wherever the data resides or is accessed.
Freedom to Use Data Where Needed
By eliminating the need to handle every data migration as a special, one-off project with a unique solution, companies are able to easily use their data wherever it’s needed. The benefits of this include
- easier, faster backup and disaster recovery processes including backup to the cloud and disaster recovery as a service
- ability to more easily use data for non-production, non-transactional systems like development, test, and analytics
- improve data protection across all cloud architectures, applying a single policy to data wherever it resides
This means that data doesn’t end up isolated in silos and is equally available to both legacy applications and brand new cloud systems, allowing companies to share a single dataset rather than creating copies and the issues that come with synchronizing them. It also supports using data in new ways, especially big data applications that require collecting large amounts of new data, often stored in the cloud due to capacity requirements, and integrating it with existing data to discover new insights.
For companies building a hybrid cloud, the ability to easily move data between environments is critical. dcVAST partners with NetApp to enable that data movement with NetApp Data Fabric. Our Gold Partner status means we have the expertise needed to design, install, and support NetApp as part of your hybrid cloud, ensuring data is where it’s needed and protected wherever it resides. Contact us to learn how our services, leveraging NetApp and other leading technology solutions, help your business optimize the way you use your key business data.
