NetApp solutions for Cloud Computing

Cloud computing offers a real and achievable alternative to the traditional silo approach to IT, as each application or line of business has its own hosts or servers, network and storage. It allows IT managers to deliver IT as a service (ITaaS), either in whole or in part, such as storage as a service (STaaS).

The benefits are that a data-centre built to deliver a cloud – a virtualised, horizontal infrastructure – will be more dynamic, more agile, significantly more efficient and ultimately cheaper to own than a data-centre built to deliver IT in silos.

Together, with Cisco and VMware, NetApp helps customers transform IT silos into a shared infrastructure, delivering the vision of Cloud Computing. Customers will get the get the results they need to maintain a competitive edge with an integrated, end-to-end solution from the industry leaders in server, storage, and network virtualisation.

Advantages of Cloud from a technological perspective:

By consolidating a storage infrastructure and implementing technologies like virtualisation, data de-duplication, thin provisioning, cloning and thin replication, customers can dramatically increase storage utilisation and realise cost savings that can fund a Cloud project.

Datacentre efficiency is a major benefit: achieved via virtualisation and internal or private clouds.

Advantages of Cloud from a business perspective:

Cloud computing in general and storage clouds in particular have the potential to reduce IT costs significantly. Storage virtualisation provides the technology enabler, and a step-by-step approach to its deployment can release the funds to make it possible today.

In summary, implementation of a storage cloud can lead to decreased storage costs which in turn can convert capital expenditure into operational expenditure.