An Education in NetApp Cloud Data Services: The Facts
Anthony Lye
In these uncertain times, where the world finds itself in sheltered conditions, it’s critical that accurate information flow freely between customers, partners, and even competitors.
After reading a recent article in Channel Reseller News (of which I am a fan), I found myself very disappointed with an interview with Charles Giancarlo, the CEO of Pure Storage. His responses showed a lack of understanding about NetApp’s leadership and the excellent progress that our Cloud Data Services unit has made—across the major cloud providers.
Because I have been a CEO on two occasions myself, I know how hard it is to stay current—to operate on factual information instead of hearsay. At times like these, I feel it’s especially important to avoid propagating inaccurate information.
Let’s look at the facts:
The article stated that NetApp Cloud Data Services’ offerings on public clouds were file only. INCORRECT: NetApp provides both block and file on all three public clouds; thousands of customers use these services.
The article stated that we provided our storage only on custom hardware. INCORRECT: We run our industry-leading storage software on all media types in the three public clouds. AWS, Azure, and Google customers self-select the underlying media.
The article stated that we are not native to the public cloud. INCORRECT: In fact, Azure NetApp Files is an Azure first-party service for migrating and running the most demanding enterprise file-workloads in the cloud, including databases, SAP, and high-performance computing applications, with no changes to code. Every single day, we onboard 10 new customers. Only NetApp is native to Azure—and its data centers, console and API. How much more native can you get?
NetApp and Google Cloud have also partnered to offer Cloud Volumes Service, a fully managed, cloud-native data service that provides advanced data management.
The article states that NetApp only focuses on tier-two applications and services. INCORRECT: We have made strides with SAP HANA, database, and HPC workloads, which aren’t secondary workloads. But we’re happy to help customers in the tier-two space too, since our competitors insist. #weloveallworkloads
We have several benchmarks and customers that backup our facts. I encourage you to read these resources to learn more:
- Energy-Producer Repsol Uses Cloud To Make Decisions Faster
- Mott MacDonald Reduces Job Completion Time and Resource Costs by 30% With Azure
- Azure NetApp Files: Benchmarks
We are in uncertain times. It is not a time to let misinformation run rampant. Reach out if you want to learn more about the great things NetApp is doing as cloud storage and data service specialists. At the end of the day— disinformation aside—I am excited that our competition is taking notice of our success.
Stay well.
Anthony Lye
Anthony Lye is executive vice president and general manager of the Public Cloud Services business for NetApp. He is responsible for the strategy and execution to further NetApp’s cloud innovation across public cloud, hybrid cloud, and hyperscaler models and to establish the company as the undisputed leader in managing data in a cloud-integrated world.
Anthony brings more than 25 years of diverse leadership experience to NetApp, spanning roles in development, product management, marketing and sales, and as a high-tech CEO twice. He has focused primarily on cloud innovation for the past 15 years, most recently as the executive vice president and chief cloud officer at Guidewire Software, and at Oracle where he was the senior vice president and general manager of CRM. His background includes leading teams worldwide and hands-on experience building applications and platforms working directly with the developer community.
