Hostway IDC

Elevating AI-ready private cloud with NetApp

Hostway IDC provides collocation and hosting services and, since 2011, has operated its public cloud, FlexCloud. The company also builds and runs Proxmox-based private cloud infrastructure for enterprise customers, offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), and delivers managed services that integrate leading domestic and global public clouds to create tailored environments.

As organizations in manufacturing, education, and e-commerce accelerate digital transformation, Hostway has supported them with neutral data center services and managed cloud operations. While public cloud adoption continues to grow, the need for an AI-ready private cloud has become equally critical. With AI initiatives scaling and IT demand remaining volatile, Hostway required a next-generation data infrastructure that could keep performance, protection, and governance consistent under heavy load and rapid change—preserving service continuity and strengthening security.

As Korean enterprises accelerate AI adoption and digital transformation, the importance of an agile, intelligent data architecture—one that balances performance, scalability, and resource optimization—has come to the forefront. Before expanding its collaboration with NetApp, Hostway made it a priority to advance its IT infrastructure so it could maintain system performance and ensure data protection even during peak demand on its data architecture. Working with IT services specialist KL Information & Communication (KLiC), Hostway chose to adopt NetApp’s unified storage platform.

Hostway is expanding large-scale, Proxmox-based private cloud deployments for enterprise customers and has embraced Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) so a lean team can reliably operate complex environments. By adopting an intelligent data infrastructure and leveraging a range of NetApp solutions, Hostway achieved the following outcomes.

By building a high-availability (HA) architecture based on NetApp^® ONTAP^® and using Snapshot^™ and SnapMirror^®, Hostway was able to respond stably even in situations involving data threats or service interruptions. Furthermore, through automated disaster recovery, the company can now recover quickly from failures without service downtime.

By adopting the NetApp AFF C-Series, a capacity-optimized all-flash system, Hostway improved operational efficiency. Automated infrastructure management and optimized processes reduced manual intervention and secured operational agility.

Through the AFF C-Series’ built-in deduplication and compression, Hostway reduced storage costs by about 30%. With NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP, Hostway unified management across on-premises and public cloud environments, significantly improving workload operating efficiency within a single platform.

Using NetApp Active IQ^® Unified Manager (AIQ), Hostway automatically coordinated resource allocation and prevented bottlenecks, enabling swift incident response without performance degradation under heavy load and contributing to improved customer satisfaction.

NetApp’s tailored support for Hostway extends well beyond solution implementation. The regular health checks and proactive lifecycle management by NetApp’s Customer Support Management team have not only delivered high-availability services, but also instilled strong confidence within Hostway’s operations team.

The effects of introducing NetApp solutions were clear. First, by introducing NetApp ONTAP and integrating on-premises and public cloud into a single framework, operational complexity decreased, and workload mobility increased. In addition, real-time data protection strengthened reliability, and powerful storage performance raised operational efficiency. A balance between performance and cost was achieved, and performance optimization was realized even under heavy-load conditions.

Hostway adopted an IaC approach so that even a minimal team could operate complex infrastructure and achieve an improvement in operational efficiency of 73%.

Of Hostway’s solid 25 years of service operations, NetApp has been there for 14 years, more than half that time.

Beginning with the build-out of Hostway’s FlexCloud in 2011, the two companies are currently conducting various joint projects, including VDI implementations for e-commerce customers and tailored private-cloud configurations for manufacturers and educational institutions.

Hostway and NetApp will continue to provide offerings that meet customers' evolving business needs that include enhanced cybersecurity capabilities, leveraging AI to protect against ransomware, ensure rapid recovery in the event of damage, and much more.