NetApp made its mark on storage this week with the launch of Spot, a cost optimization platform. The vendor also introduced a new autonomous hybrid cloud volume platform and cloud-based virtual desktop solutions.

The new services, which were announced on the opening day of NetApp’s Insight conference, are aimed at addressing data challenges in the cloud. Specifically they are targeted at simplifying multi-cloud management for optimized performance at the lowest cost and enabling portability for data-rich cloud applications.

“Much like optimizing compute and containers, here Spot is optimizing the allocation of storage resources dynamically based on how the application is actually consuming them,” Ronen Schwartz, SVP and GM of NetApp, explained. The optimized storage is NetApp Cloud Volumes storage, which is used through APIs without a need for the customer to configure the storage.

The new services come just one week after the veteran data management provider updated its ONTAP data management software with deeper cloud integration, greater consolidation, and continuous data availability to simplify and improve the efficiency of business-critical applications that run in the cloud or on-premises. The vendor also unveiled a more flexible NetApp Keystone Flex Subscription service and a new NetApp SolidFire Enterprise Software-Defined Storage (SDS) service.

Spot Storage by NetApp

NetApp earlier this year nabbed cloud cost management platform provider Spot in a move to bolster its application driven infrastructure (ADI) business. Spot provides tools for visibility and automation into how an organization manages its workloads running on public clouds. This provides a way to manage the deployment of those workloads while maintaining service-level agreements (SLAs) and service-level objectives (SLOs).

It is designed to be used in tandem with Spot Ocean, and existing offering that automates cloud infrastructure for containers. When used together, the vendor says users can develop and deploy Kubernetes-based applications in the cloud and eliminate the need to supply storage and data services. This is what the vendor describes as a “serverless and storageless” set of managed services for software containers.

Cloud Manager

The autonomous cloud volume platform is a public cloud-hosted service called NetApp Cloud Manager. It offers users a way to centrally manage their hybrid cloud infrastructure, data, and services across on-premises, Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) storage.

It appears, however, that Cloud Manager is not so much new as it is rebranded. In 2016, NetApp launched OnCommand Cloud Manager, bringing together “data fabric with a single management interface independent of your data location” to “automates data movement between on-premises and the cloud.”

Included with Spot are two financial operations applications: Cloud Analyzer for Azure, which provides cost and usage analysis of all cloud deployments to help find issues and remediation; and Spot Eco for Azure, which analyzes cloud compute usage on Microsoft Azure. According to Schwartz, integration with Cloud Analyzer allows users to easily step into the Spot platform directly from Cloud Manager to optimize compute and lower costs.

NetApp Virtual Desktop Management Service

NetApp also launched NetApp Virtual Desktop Management Service (VDMS), which is a new service based off of its CloudJumper purchase in April, and is powered by a hybrid cloud virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) design. The NetApp Virtual Desktop Service (VDS), which is the software domain that allows the end user to manage the virtual desktops, allows customers to select which pieces of infrastructure they want to use to support a service.

The company said the broader VDMS will help companies scale infrastructure resources to meet the demands of their growing remote workforces. It automates and orchestrates remote desktop services in what would ordinarily be manually enabled tasks. It also includes software-as-a-service (SaaS) backup for Microsoft 365 environments.

NetApp Dawns Kubernetes Shine

From a bird’s-eye view these announcements punctuate NetApp’s new narrative as a “cloud-led, data-centric software company.” Schwartz said it has set its sights on becoming a leading on-premises hybrid cloud platform capable of automating infrastructure for Kubernetes.

The company is in the process of integrating Spot Ocean with Project Astra, NetApp’s storage and data services platform for Kubernetes that enables application and data portability. This will deliver “complete optimization, application and data management for containers and Kubernetes,” Schwartz added.

Project Astra is architected to work as an integration layer above Cloud Volumes – Cloud Manager is the management layer of Cloud Volumes – and ONTAP, which Schwartz said is an update the company expects to roll out over the next 9 months. As for Project Astra, Spot Ocean integration will come, Schwartz said, adding it’s just a matter of when.