Five ways to cut through infrastructure complexity with NetApp

Managing data can be like trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle when half the pieces are missing and the picture keeps changing. Frustrating, right? Maybe it’s time to change the way you think about solving complexity. The key to eliminating complexity may be your infrastructure. The right solutions help you to break down silos and bring innovative new technologies to market fast.

When every file, block, and object fits perfectly into one intelligent data infrastructure, your data is easy to manage and operations are seamless. The puzzle that threatened new complexities with each new piece is now a beautiful picture where all the parts fit perfectly. A new infrastructure and data storage approach could help you eliminate the five most common types of data management complexity that IT teams face.

Let’s take a look at five ways to cut through infrastructure complexity.

Your data is everywhere: on your premises, in the cloud, or as part of a complex hybrid environment. Storing data in different areas often requires you to use different tools and adhere to vendor standards, and it can even leave you searching for ways to get systems to communicate. The biggest challenge that this complexity creates is data silos, which can hinder everything from securing data to integrating it into data-fueled workflows.

Unified data storage is a way of looking at your infrastructure that lets you manage any kind of data in any environment with ease, from a single interface. No silos needed. Whether it’s file, block, or object data, with unified data storage you can handle them all in one cohesive system.

When an automotive manufacturer wanted to speed up AI-powered autonomous vehicle development, the company embraced unified data storage supported by NetApp^® solutions. A common operating environment across all data, integration with the world’s largest clouds, and a single control plane helped to advance the automotive manufacturer’s AI initiatives. Unifying data across edge, core, and cloud environments removed the silos that slowed down their innovation.

You might have data stored on your premises or across multiple clouds. For most organizations, sprawling data stored through a hybrid ecosystem contributes to data management complexity. With NetApp, you can manage it all through a single console. Unified control means that you no longer have to juggle disparate systems. Instead, “single pane of glass” visibility with a solution such as NetApp BlueXP™ control plane enables you to manage and monitor any type of data from one console, no matter where it’s stored. You can make data storage decisions based on performance, budget, and security instead of on arbitrary system limitations.

A leading, multilocation research hospital faced an ever-growing data load with increasingly stringent regulatory compliance demands. The hospital’s complex infrastructure made controlling access and maintaining end-to-end encryption difficult, which left sensitive data open to attack. By embracing unified data storage and a single central management solution, the hospital is able to secure their data across on-premises and cloud environments. They’ve eliminated security blind spots and can confidently protect sensitive patient information.

Even the most effective data management strategy makes an impact only when it scales. Unified data storage doesn’t just make management simple—it makes scaling simple too. You can automate day-to-day operations, manage security, and recover data all from a single system. Automated monitoring tools, policy-based solutions, and data governance best practices can be applied across your environments. This simplicity reduces the time and resources spent managing IT, freeing your team to focus on the strategic initiatives that matter the most to your organization.

A global financial firm uses NetApp's built-in AIOps capabilities to automate optimization and cut down on the need for manual intervention. They achieved better efficiency and also met sustainability goals by reducing their energy footprint​.

Managing multiple operating systems for different storage types often requires your organization to rely on different teams, which may require specialized skills, training, and products. Staffing projects, covering out-of-office time, and simply keeping operations moving smoothly is unnecessarily complex. With a unified OS, your team can manage file, block, and object workloads on the premises and in the cloud. This consistency reduces training costs and simplifies operations.

Having one operating system can help simplify your IT team’s workload, reducing the time and cost spent managing complexity. For example, a United States national laboratory needed to archive 30 years of data while enabling cutting-edge scientific research. With a single OS, they managed massive datasets efficiently, reducing operational complexity and focusing on clean energy innovation instead of data headaches.

Vendor-specific solutions can lead to spiraling costs, the need for specialized training, and more toolsets than your team can manage. Troubleshooting problems that touch different parts of your infrastructure may require communicating with different contacts. From a cost perspective, you’re constantly navigating licensing and usage costs, ongoing training, and the hardware and support to keep different solutions running. A unified data infrastructure standardizes your approach: one toolkit, one system, and one integrated set of costs.

This unified approach was crucial for a global financial firm that needed to improve energy efficiency while keeping expenses down. They reduced their carbon emissions and significantly lowered operational costs by unifying their data storage​ with NetApp. When cost cuts are on the table, a unified storage approach can help.

Unified data storage goes beyond simply storing information—it’s about transforming the way you manage infrastructure. By automating, centralizing, and simplifying, you can turn data management from an IT burden into a competitive advantage.

With an intelligent data infrastructure supported by NetApp solutions, you’re back in control. No vendor complexity, data silos, or out-of-control costs. Instead, you’ve got one system, one console, one seamless data picture.

Ready to see how NetApp can simplify your infrastructure? Learn how unified data storage cuts through complexity today.