NetApp acquired virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) provider CloudJumper for an undisclosed amount in a deal that propels the data services company into the remote desktop market.

CloudJumper entered the VDI market in 2016 with an initial focus on its hosted workspace offering. It has been closely aligned with Microsoft’s virtual desktop efforts and has a cloud workspace management platform for VMware Cloud on Amazon Web Services (AWS). It also competes against vendors such as VMware, Citrix, and Huawei.

Anthony Lye, SVP and GM of NetApp’s Cloud Data Services business, explained in a statement that the CloudJumper acquisition will allow NetApp to provide a management platform to provide virtual desktop infrastructure, storage, and data management across cloud hyperscalers like Microsoft Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud.

Vikram Bhatia, VP of cloud go-to-market strategy and partnerships at NetApp, explained that the deal will help NetApp round out its product portfolio to solve customer business challenges tied to growing adoption of virtualized desktop products.

“The challenge has been about what kind of user experience or performance customers are getting for their users that are firing up their desktop browser,” Bhatia said in an interview with SDxCentral. “And we had been evaluating this as a need for our customers. And what this acquisition does is give our customers a complete integrated story for this specific use case.”

Bhatia said that the CloudJumper assets would tie into three specific NetApp offerings.

The first is the NetApp Virtual Desktop Service (VDS), which is the software domain that allows the end user to manage the virtual desktops. This allows those customers to select which pieces of infrastructure they want to use to support the service.

The second is a managed service that is a virtual desktop-as-a-service product. Bhatia explained that this includes all of the infrastructure required to run it as a combined as-a-service offering.

“It’s fully managed by us and the customer just buys the number of desktops they want to deploy,” Bhatia said.

The third is a broader service that combines the CloudJumper platform with the NetApp infrastructure and complimentary services like a software-as-a-service (SaaS) backup for Microsoft Office 365 that backs up user data on a self-service model for the user.

The deal also follows on the heels of NetApp’s acquisition last month of Talon Storage for an undisclosed amount. That deal boosted its software-defined storage assets, tapping into Talon’s cloud data platform that is targeted at simplifying file sharing between remote and branch offices.

Bhatia said that the Talon acquisition alone enabled remote office and branch office service for file caching for its customers while the CloudJumper deal is the VDI component. “Combined, they offer a complete modern workplace-type experience,” Bhatia said, adding that this makes it “so our customer doesn’t need to deploy solutions for their needs from five different vendors.”

NetApp’s most recent financial results showed a year-over-year dip in revenues and gross profits, but a slight increase in net income due to a favorable income tax swing. Those results included operations through Jan. 24, which for the most part negated any impact from the ongoing COVID-19 virus outbreak. The company at that time also forecast that its full fiscal year 2020 revenue results, which wrapped up this week, would be down about 10% year over year. And that was before the full impact of the COVID-19 outbreak was taken into account.

Despite the more recent struggles, NetApp remains a strong player in the storage space.

It was tagged in the most upper-right of Gartner’s 2019 Magic Quadrant for primary storage vendors. This put NetApp in that “leaders” quadrant with rivals like Dell EMC, Pure Storage, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM, Huawei, Hitachi Vantara, and Infinidat. NetApp was lauded for its data fabric, Active IQ analytics, and solid-state arrays, but dinged for inconsistent post-sales customer service, lack of global reach, and lack of data management services.

More recently, NetApp launched a technology preview of its Project Astra that is a storage and data services platform for Kubernetes that enables application and data portability. The platform offers a normalized application data management approach that results in the portability of data rich or stateful applications, moving them from one cluster to another.

The Project Astra launch also continued NetApp’s growing Kubernetes focus with its eyes set on becoming a leading on-premises hybrid cloud platform capable of automating infrastructure for Kubernetes.