NetApp and Equinix deliver Comprehensive Bare Metal-as-a-Service

NetApp, a global cloud-led, data-centric software company, has announced a new joint Bare-Metal-as-a-Service (BMaaS) solution called NetApp Storage on Equinix Metal. This solution is delivered as an as-a-service model through NetApp Keystone, which offers a true hybrid cloud experience in a single subscription. With NetApp Storage integrated with Equinix Metal, users can choose the storage capacity and performance they need without overprovisioning. This greatly reduces upfront costs and provides the flexibility to add more storage on demand as business needs dictate.

NetApp Storage on Equinix Metal provides customers with a full stack of computing, networking, and storage infrastructure with low-latency interconnection to all major public clouds. This environment can be either a single tenant or dedicated, and meets the most stringent performance requirements, provides elasticity, and is packaged, priced, billed, and supported under a single agreement.

“Today’s rapid pace of cloud innovation enables companies to move more workload types to the hybrid multi-cloud more easily and in greater numbers than ever before,” said Sandeep Singh, Senior Vice President and GM of Enterprise Storage at NetApp. “NetApp is a leader in delivering native cloud and first-party solutions on all three major public clouds that provide a unified hybrid multi-cloud experience for customers. NetApp Storage on Equinix Metal further illustrates the industry value of our partnership and our collective commitment to providing as-a-service, hybrid multi-cloud solutions with higher performance, scalability, and simplified management.”

“As organizations in Asia Pacific accelerate their cloud journey, they need to build a robust data infrastructure for a flexible and secure hybrid multi-cloud experience on-premises, in any cloud, and anywhere in between,” said Matthew Swinbourne, CTO, of Cloud Architecture, NetApp Asia Pacific. “We are excited to introduce this enterprise-grade flash-as-a-service solution that is seamlessly integrated with Equinix Metal. With NetApp Storage on Equinix Metal, organizations will be able to better focus on driving innovations and business critical tasks.”   

Key benefits of NetApp Storage on Equinix Metal include:

• Integrated Solution: NetApp Storage is fully integrated with Equinix Metal's infrastructure, ensuring a cohesive full-stack experience for storage (file, block, and object), computing, and networking as a service under a single subscription.
• Cloud Adjacent: Customers can choose how they want to build their hybrid multi-cloud experience while maintaining control of their data in a low latency, high-performance environment—on-premises, in the cloud, or anywhere in between—on all three major public clouds.
• Higher performance for demanding workloads: When NetApp Storage is combined with Equinix Metal's high-performance dedicated bare metal servers, users unlock fast data access, minimal latency, and the ability to handle the most demanding workloads with ease.
• Scalable Capacity and Performance On-Demand: With NetApp Storage on Equinix Metal, customers can scale their storage resources as required to meet evolving business needs.
• Superior Data Security: NetApp Storage delivers industry-leading encryption, ransomware, and security features, and enables customers to receive industry-leading physical and environmental security in an Equinix International Business Exchange (IBX^®) data center to help ensure customer data remains protected. NetApp’s proactive ransomware detection capabilities can identify potential cybersecurity threats and automatically perform an additional immutable backup of data if a threat is suspected.
• Global Reach: Equinix's extensive global footprint lets users take advantage of NetApp Storage on Equinix Metal in Equinix IBX data centers across the world. As of June 2023, Equinix has a total of 250 IBX data centers globally in 71 metros with 26 Equinix Metal locations.
• Simplified Management: NetApp's unified control plane for storage and data services provides customers with comprehensive control and visibility over their data no matter where it resides. Equinix Metal's automated provisioning platform further simplifies deployment and management.

“The growth of cloud adoption, the acceleration of AI, and the desire to derive real-time insights from data puts significant pressure on customers to optimize data management to gain a competitive advantage,” said Brian Stein, Senior Vice President of edge Infrastructure Services at Equinix. “Achieving our goal of an integrated, full-stack, solution is another milestone that provides enterprise customers low latency access to all clouds while keeping control of their data. This cloud adjacency helps transform how companies deploy applications, design their solutions, and generate new revenue streams while simplifying operations and containing costs.”

NetApp Storage on Equinix Metal is a crucial step in NetApp's cloud strategy expansion, providing users with a seamless hybrid multi-cloud experience. With this solution, NetApp can deliver the entire stack through Equinix IBX data centers equipped with Equinix Metal, providing optimized connectivity to major public clouds via high-speed ramps. Additionally, users have complete access to NetApp cloud services such as Cloud Volumes ONTAP on Equinix's global dedicated bare metal equipment.