Microsoft has announced the general availability of Azure NetApp Files in its enterprise-grade data centre in Qatar. This native Azure service enables businesses to deploy and run file-based applications in the cloud without having to refactor or rearchitect them.
Azure NetApp Files builds on the partnership between Microsoft and NetApp that spans more than two decades by combining the benefits of Azure with proven and trusted NetApp ONTAP storage operating system to simplify migration of previously un-migratable mission-critical workloads (for both Linux and Windows applications).
Organisations in Qatar and abroad, can now easily migrate SAP HANA, high-performance computing (HPC), VMware, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), and complex databases such as Oracle and SQL Server. These workloads can be rapidly migrated without compromising on their performance, while delivering the reliability and scalability provided by Azure cloud.
The partnership between Microsoft and NetApp drives innovation in the customer experience by providing businesses with an intuitive way to benefit from the scale, agility, and economics of the public cloud in their file-based workloads. Current solutions in the market provide limited enterprise-grade capabilities and lack file protocol and version support, advanced data management, security, and a consistent user experience.
Azure NetApp Files overcome the challenges when migrating file-based workloads to the cloud. It features integrated data protection while delivering support for multiple protocol versions including NFSv3, NFSv4.1, and SMB3.1.x, and performance tiers (Standard, Premium, and Ultra) to expand the addressable application footprint of organisations across industry verticals.
Azure NetApp Files is an Azure high performance, low latency enterprise file storage service, powered by NetApp technology. It has been enabling businesses to migrate and run the most demanding workloads in the cloud. It is built for simplicity, performance, and compliance. With Azure NetApp Files in place, technology leaders gain a better understanding of their infrastructure while achieving high performance and reliability requirements.
With Azure’s push towards the use of availability zones (AZs) the need for storage-based data replication is equally increasing. Azure NetApp Files now support cross-zone replication. With this new in-region replication capability you can replicate your Azure NetApp Files volumes asynchronously from one Azure availability zone to another in a fast and cost-effective way.
