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Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP: What's All the Buzz About?

NetApp has taken their industry-leading storage software, ONTAP, to Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a fully managed native storage service. FSx for ONTAP delivers NFS, SMB and iSCSI storage — powered by NetApp's data management software — and integrates directly with all AWS cloud services.

In this blog

NetApp + AWS
NetApp + AWS

 Service overview

Formally called FSx for ONTAP, this new storage service was released as part of AWS Storage Day 2021 on September 2. The native AWS service takes the best of both AWS and NetApp to bring a truly integrated data storage platform to AWS. FSx for ONTAP is definitely a technology first from a storage vendor and cloud provider perspective. Much more than just a file system, the data storage platform takes all of the features and functions from the ONTAP storage software and directly links them with all of the enterprise services offered by AWS. This service is a true game-changer as customers venture on their digital transformation journey. The ability to offer NFS, SMB and iSCSI storage protocols within the platform, coupled with all of the SnapMirror and Tiering technologies built into ONTAP, empowers customers to migrate, accelerate and add performance to their data as they transition to AWS. 

 Benefits

As FSx for ONTAP is a native AWS service, there is a full list of benefits to customers as they look to the cloud for a storage solution.

  • Fully managed: A native AWS service means that it is operated and supported by AWS. The customer doesn't need to worry about hardware installation, upgrades or maintenance. Plus, the service offers several options for management — including AWS Management Console and AWS Command Line Interface (CLI) — for the cloud-born customer that is comfortable with traditional AWS tools and UI. Also, for the customer that is comfortable with the NetApp and ONTAP management tools, you can manage the platform through NetApp Cloud Manager GUI and REST API, ONTAP CLI, and ONTAP REST API.
  • Accessibility: All of the storage volumes created on the service support NFS, SMB and iSCSI. The volumes are readily available inside your AWS account and directly connected to Amazon EC2, Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS), Amazon WorkSpaces, Amazon AppStream 2.0 and AWS CloudFormation, just to name a few.
  • Performance and cost: The service is built for high-performance workloads, offering sub-millisecond latency, very high IOPS and close to 2 Gbps throughput. Plus, all of the ONTAP storage efficiencies (deduplication, compression, capacity tiering) are built in, ensuring complete cost-effectiveness of the data.
  • High availability and security: By default, the service is built on resilient AWS infrastructure and offers a 99.99% uptime guarantee. The NetApp Snapshot technology is utilized for backups and disaster recovery copies, while also offering file access controls, ransomware protection, antivirus scanning of the data and integration with most security software solutions — all enabled on deployment.
AWS Product Image
AWS Product Image

 Unlocking additional services with NetApp Cloud Manager

Although this is a native AWS service — and integrated with all of the AWS service portfolio — there are additional features from NetApp available if you choose to deploy FSx for ONTAP inside of NetApp Cloud Manager. This is especially useful if you are looking for a true multicloud or hybrid cloud data story, utilizing persistent volumes for Kubernetes for your DevOps story, and if you need a data governance and compliance solution for your data. 

Please see below for all of the additional NetApp cloud data services available through NetApp Cloud Manager with FSx for ONTAP:

 Additional resources

Stay tuned for a new Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP lab coming to the WWT Platform.

Technologies