NetApp Declares VMware Sovereign Cloud Integration & Data Operation

NetApp has announced two new offerings designed to simplify and centralize enterprise data management across multi-tenant vSphere environments. The first offering is NetApp StorageGRID for VMware Sovereign Cloud, which includes the NetApp plugin for VMware Cloud Director Object Storage Extension.

This plugin enables sovereign cloud customers to more cost-effectively store, secure, protect, and preserve unstructured data while complying with global data privacy and residency regulations. The second offering is the latest release of NetApp ONTAP Tools for VMware vSphere (OTV 10.1), which is designed to simplify and centralize enterprise data management across multi-tenant vSphere environments.

Cloud computing has become a vital aspect for entities that deal with sensitive data and require high levels of security, such as governments, finance, and healthcare industries. As digital economic capability is expanding, national governments are exploring ways to reduce their dependence on multinational corporations for cloud services and instead establish their sovereignty in this field.

NetApp's Object Storage plugin for VMware Cloud Director allows Cloud Service Providers to integrate StorageGRID as their primary Object Storage solution. This enables partners to offer customers secure Object Storage for unstructured data without additional training. StorageGRID is universally compatible and includes automated lifecycle management, making it a standout solution for cost-effective safeguarding and maintenance of high availability.

“We know that data sovereignty is increasingly important to large organizations and that they are continually increasing the volume of highly sensitive data they need to manage and store,” said Phil Brotherton, Vice President of solutions and alliances at NetApp. “The integration of NetApp StorageGRID with VMware Sovereign Cloud is a significant achievement for NetApp and a real game changer for our customers with unstructured data in the cloud who must maintain sovereign control of that data at all times.”

NetApp’s Sovereign Cloud integration with Cloud Director will allow providers to offer customers:

– Better assurance that sensitive data, including metadata, remains under sovereign control while preventing access by foreign authorities that could violate data privacy laws.

– Continuous compliance with a trusted infrastructure, built-in frameworks, and local experts protect applications and data from evolving attack vectors.

– To stay ahead of changing data privacy regulations, security threats, and geopolitical challenges, it's important to have a future-proofed infrastructure that can adapt quickly. This will help ensure that your organization is well-prepared to handle any potential risks or changes in the future.

– The text has been rewritten to read: Data can be securely shared and analyzed for insights, without violating privacy laws or compromising data integrity.

VMware Sovereign Cloud providers are committed to creating and maintaining cloud solutions based on modern, software-defined architectures that follow the VMware Sovereign Cloud framework's key principles and best practices. Today, workloads running on VMware Sovereign Cloud environments may include a wide range of datasets - from transactional workloads to large volumes of unstructured data. These workloads need to be managed in a cost-effective and integrated manner that complies with regulated standards for sovereign/regulated customers.

“VMware Sovereign Cloud providers help customers in highly regulated industries meet the need for highly secure, data-driven innovation. Because no one company can do this alone, VMware relies on a powerful and interconnected ecosystem to bring innovative solutions to market,” said Rajeev Bhardwaj, Vice President of the cloud Provider Platform at VMware. “NetApp is a longtime, strategic technology partner that is helping us address Sovereign Cloud customers’ requirements for advanced data services. NetApp’s Sovereign Cloud integration with VMware Cloud Director will help customers simplify complex data environments and help ensure their data will stay secure and in compliance with the data sovereignty laws in their regions.”

NetApp has announced its collaboration with VMware to modernize API integrations between NetApp ONTAP and VMware vSphere. This integration is aimed at simplifying the management and operations of NetApp ONTAP-based data management platforms across multi-tenant vSphere environments. It also enables users to utilize a new micro-services-based architecture to deliver enhanced scale and availability. With the latest releases of NetApp ONTAP and ONTAP Tools for vSphere, provisioning, protecting, and better securing modern VMware environments at a large scale has become significantly faster and easier. Moreover, the single point of visibility and control through vSphere has been maintained.

NetApp ONTAP Tools for VMware deliver two key benefits to customers:

– A new architecture that integrates with VMware vSphere APIs for Storage Awareness (VASA) allows for simplified policy-driven operations and scalability similar to that of cloud computing.

–IT teams can easily build end-to-end workflows by integrating with existing tooling through an automation-enabled API-first framework.