Rackspace partners with NetApp to deliver storage on VMware Cloud on AWS
In a move to service the growing number of enterprises shifting to a multi-cloud strategy, Rackspace has teamed up with NetApp to give customers access to storage on VMware Cloud on AWS.
Speaking to ZDNet, Rackspace strategic alliances manager for VMware Donald Schubot said the partnership will help service customers with storage heavy workloads, without the need to purchase additional compute and memory.
"A hypercoverged infrastructure is great because you get storage, CPU, and memory all per block. But the challenge we've seen customers run into is that they may only need five blocks for CPU and memory, but have a lot of storage needs, and need 10 blocks to meet the storage requirement. That ends up really tipping the financial scale by having to buy all that extra compute and memory, while all they need to do is increments on the storage," he said.
Must read: How to sync multiple cloud storage services for free with MultCloud (TechRepublic)
The announcement, made at vForum in Sydney on Tuesday, comes off the back of Rackspace noticing that enterprises are increasingly choosing to take a multi-cloud strategy approach to their business, Schubot said.
"We're seeing customers wanting to get to the cloud … so the first thing they're doing is moving their VMware footprint from the on-premise data centre … to VMware Cloud on AWS because … there's no need to rearchitect any of the applications," he said.
"So, customers are easily able to move from their on-premise data centre to the cloud with very little change."
VMware Cloud on AWS runs VMware's software-defined datacentre on AWS cloud, allowing customers to run any application across public, private, or hybrid cloud environments.
VMware Cloud on AWS is now available in 17 AWS regions globally. According to VMware as of Q2 FY20, VMware Cloud on AWS customers globally increased four times over.
In August, a survey by Faction, revealed that VMware Cloud on AWS is gaining interest, deployments, and more workloads, but also noted that there are challenges revolving around cost management, network complexity, and prerequisites from AWS.
Rackspace's latest move with NetApp follows on from the company's decision earlier in the year to rebrand, with a goal to become an unbiased managed cloud vendor that can offer professional services across an enterprise.
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