Published on Netapp.com/blog/. Read the full article here.
As more enterprises consider hybrid infrastructure for storage, vendors will attempt to woo buyers with managed cloud services to simplify the transition. Those vendors include hyperscalers such as AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform as well as those that provide cloud-like services such as Dell and Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
“[The vendors] don’t have to ship boxes and [customers] don’t have to buy arrays,” said Dave Raffo, a senior analyst at Evaluator Group.
Supply chain constraints could force enterprises to consider the cloud over on-premises products as well, Raffo added.
“[The cloud] is not really cheaper if you have a lot of data,” he said. “It’s the buying process and management that is so much easier.”
Cloud storage vendors continue to try to make cloud more attractive. Last year, AWS launched managed file services for OpenZFS and Netapp OnTap. The new services enable a close approximation of on-premises file systems to move existing workloads to the cloud and connect with other AWS services.
As interest in cloud storage grows, Raffo anticipates the hyperscalers will expand disaster recovery (DR) and back-up managed services as well.
AWS provided evidence of the potential trend in 2021 when it made AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery generally available while rival Google Cloud Platform touted the services of Actifio, a DR company acquired by Google Cloud in 2020.
“The traditional backup vendor has a SaaS or is using cloud as a [backup] target,” he said. “But now we’re seeing the public cloud guys trying to get in and do that backup.”
Raffo also anticipates more SAN services, targeting massive legacy databases, to become managed cloud services in the near future.
