Cloud computing has swiftly moved from industry hype to a top IT initiative, with more CIOs building a private cloud, evaluating service providers for public cloud services, or employing a hybrid model that combines the best of both.

Through an innovative global ecosystem of cloud partners and a product portfolio that offers new integrated cloud management capabilities and pre-validated cloud infrastructure solutions, NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP) helps enterprise customers accelerate and simplify their transition to private, public, and hybrid cloud models.

Today, NetApp is announcing new technologies within NetApp OnCommand management software that control, automate, and analyse the shared storage infrastructure for greater optimisation and service efficiency.

And to extend these capabilities beyond storage for a complete enterprise cloud infrastructure service, NetApp is enhancing its Alliance Technology Partner Program with the inclusion of cloud management leaders, enabling integration between industry-leading cloud management solutions and NetApp OnCommand to provide end-to-end management of the full-stack cloud infrastructure.

“IT leaders are seeking alternatives that help them keep pace with the demands of their business today, while allowing them to adapt and evolve as their business grows,” said Val Bercovici, cloud czar at NetApp. “Winners in this market are thinking, choosing, and behaving differently. Enterprises, government organisations and partners are turning to NetApp to help them transition to a flexible and efficient shared IT infrastructure - the foundation for cloud computing - that will help them be ready for the future and enable IT to accelerate business growth.”

NetApp provides the storage foundation for cloud with the NetApp Unified Storage Architecture and a comprehensive set of storage and data management capabilities built on Data ONTAP. NetApp's flexible and efficient shared IT infrastructure provides a secure, multi-tenant solution that can dynamically scale up or back down to meet changing demand. Enterprise customers can transition to a private cloud environment at their own pace as their business grows, without disrupting their IT infrastructure.

Key facts

* NetApp's new OnCommand management software delivers four fundamental elements that compose a cloud: service catalogue, service analytics, automation, and self-service. The new NetApp OnCommand unified manager enables the creation of a storage service catalogue and provides policy-based automation, including provisioning, data protection, and service monitoring. In addition, new NetApp OnCommand Insight provides the service analytics for storage and the rest of the infrastructure so customers have the visibility and knowledge needed to optimise a cloud service delivery. This includes usage-based metering, service-level monitoring, and performance and capacity modelling and planning.

* Building on its Alliance Technology Partner Program, NetApp has integrated nearly 20 enterprise cloud management partners, including BMC, CA, Fujitsu, Microsoft, newScale, Tivoli and VMware. These partners' cloud management software solutions enable automation and management of the cloud infrastructure and integrate with NetApp OnCommand to incorporate NetApp's innovative storage into a full-stack orchestration to increase flexibility and efficiency, while reducing overall total cost of ownership and complexity.

* Today's news builds on the tremendous cloud momentum NetApp has achieved over the past year. Last June, NetApp officially launched its Partner Program for Service Providers, which was the first of its kind in the storage industry and today includes more than 30 service providers delivering more than 50 cloud services around the world. The programme is a key part of NetApp's strategy to broaden and leverage its diverse pathways to reach customers and has helped provide cloud services built on NetApp to over one billion end-users.

* In November, NetApp unveiled new platform features, products, and technologies — including the first Cisco and NetApp FlexPod solution with VMware — to help customers transition to a flexible and efficient shared IT infrastructure, the foundation for cloud computing. And with more than 150 customers having already implemented joint data centre solutions based on the FlexPod design architecture, last month NetApp and Cisco introduced a new design guide for FlexPod that supports SAP applications, as well as the new NetApp Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track with Cisco in collaboration with Microsoft, giving partners and customers greater flexibility and freedom of choice as they transition to the cloud. Leading global and regional system integrators are leveraging these integrated private cloud solutions and tailoring them to each customer's unique business requirements.

Supporting quotes:

Steve Duplessie, Founder and Senior Analyst at ESG, says: “Our research consistently shows that material business process improvements and cost reductions are the easiest way to justify IT investments. The promise of cloud implementations, including private, public and hybrid approaches, is to deliver on both: making business more agile while making IT more efficient. Thus there are substantial pressure and opportunity for those organisations and cloud service providers to build innovative, economic, and secure infrastructures. Today's NetApp announcements focusing on service automation and analytics are destined to be a cornerstone for any cloud environment, because these capabilities, along with adjoining partners' feature sets, help optimise service levels at the lowest possible cost.”

NetApp's home for all things cloud

Visit NetApp's new home for all things cloud to learn how industry leaders have embraced the cloud for real business benefits. Learn how technology leaders, service providers, and systems integrators are using cloud solutions to achieve greater flexibility. Read white papers and interact with cloud experts to see how NetApp can help your business go further, faster: www.netapp.com/cloud.

Additional resources:

* Read more about NetApp OnCommand management software suite: www/netapp.com/oncommand or www.netapp.com/oncommandinsight.
* Learn more about the NetApp cloud management partners: www.netapp.com/us/partners/alliance-technology/infrastructure/cloud-management.html.
* Read Val Bercovici's blog to learn more about cloud industry trends: blogs.netapp.com/exposed.
* Hear Julie Parrish talk about how NetApp cloud solutions are helping our pathway partners: http://blogs.netapp.com/julie.
* View NetApp videos on the NetApp Cloud playlist at www.youtube.com/user/NetAppTV#grid/user/F2B53DC61A1B869D.
* Follow NetApp on Twitter at http://twitter.com/netapp and on NetApp Cloud at www.twitter.com/NetAppCloud.
* Discuss this news in the NetApp Community at www.netapp.com/us/communities.

Editorial contacts

NetApp
Shiri Castellan
Marketing Manager MEA
(+27) 11 575 6821
shiri@netapp.com

stautner & stautner
Judith Erskine
(+49) 089 23 08 77-0
netapp@stautner.com

About

NetApp creates innovative storage and data management solutions that deliver outstanding cost-efficiency and accelerate business breakthroughs. Discover our passion for helping companies around the world go further, faster at www.netapp.com.