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Tuesday, October 10, 2017

NetApp Unravels Data Fabric - Tailored Togs Or Tatty Toga?

Information is everywhere. That could almost be a t-shirt slogan couldn’t it? The truth is that it probably has been. The global IT industry is very fond of telling us that data streams are now being created by all manner of not just users and applications, but also devices and all the intermediary layers of connecting technologies that weave together what eventuall,y becomes some kind of fabric that spans the known universe. The result is yet another t-shirt and this time it says something like: data is a fabric, lets weave it together.

What is a data fabric?

As we have discussed before here on Forbes, data as a fabric is a notion that describes information from various levels of computer systems that gets connected (woven) together in a variety of different directions, patterns and routes. This could be data from applications, or it could be user files, database records and (in the world of the Internet of Things) it could also be sensor data and all manner of machine data (such as log files) and so on. In the world of cloud computing, a data fabric also embodies information residing in ALL types of cloud i.e. public, private and hybrid combinations of the two.

We must also appreciate that the data fabric concept also appreciates the difference between data at:

Endpoints - inside applications,Connections - inside network controls and,Services - management tools for orchestration, automation and virtualisation. 

Information management, it’s hip

Only when we appreciate the concept of the data fabric can we start to see how complex data management is becoming. Only when we start to understand how firms are now positioning themselves as specialists in this space can we start to judge whether they are using the data fabric to now weave some beautiful piece of tailoring, or whether it is being slung around customers’ shoulders like some ungainly toga.

Once quite happy to call itself a storage company, NetApp is these days solid about its positioning as an information management company. But then what IT firm isn’t? The firm now claims that its Data Fabric technology features as an ‘integral part’ of over 300,000 customer’s systems and software deployments.

“Proliferating application deployment models and data formats across hybrid IT results in organizational data being distributed across on-premises and cloud environments,” said Laura DuBois, IDC group vice president for enterprise storage, server and infrastructure software. “This creates challenges for IT staff that range from data access and visibility, to protection and application integration, to security and compliance, to labor-intensive processes for data placement. The NetApp Data Fabric offers a range of hybrid cloud data services to address these challenges and allow organizations to efficiently manage and derive value from the totality of their data.”

NetApp

NetApp chief executive officer George Kurian, never knowingly tatty in the togs department.

Information is everywhere. That could almost be a t-shirt slogan couldn’t it? The truth is that it probably has been. The global IT industry is very fond of telling us that data streams are now being created by all manner of not just users and applications, but also devices and all the intermediary layers of connecting technologies that weave together what eventually becomes some kind of fabric that spans the known universe. The result is yet another t-shirt and this time it says something like: data is a fabric, lets weave it together.

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What is a data fabric?

As we have discussed before here on Forbes, data as a fabric is a notion that describes information from various levels of computer systems that gets connected (woven) together in a variety of different directions, patterns and routes. This could be data from applications, or it could be user files, database records and (in the world of the Internet of Things) it could also be sensor data and all manner of machine data (such as log files) and so on. In the world of cloud computing, a data fabric also embodies information residing in ALL types of cloud i.e. public, private and hybrid combinations of the two.

We must also appreciate that the data fabric concept also appreciates the difference between data at:

Endpoints - inside applications,Connections - inside network controls and,Services - management tools for orchestration, automation and virtualisation. 

Information management, it’s hip

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Only when we appreciate the concept of the data fabric can we start to see how complex data management is becoming. Only when we start to understand how firms are now positioning themselves as specialists in this space can we start to judge whether they are using the data fabric to now weave some beautiful piece of tailoring, or whether it is being slung around customers’ shoulders like some ungainly toga.

Once quite happy to call itself a storage company, NetApp is these days solid about its positioning as an information management company. But then what IT firm isn’t? The firm now claims that its Data Fabric technology features as an ‘integral part’ of over 300,000 customer’s systems and software deployments.

“Proliferating application deployment models and data formats across hybrid IT results in organizational data being distributed across on-premises and cloud environments,” said Laura DuBois, IDC group vice president for enterprise storage, server and infrastructure software. “This creates challenges for IT staff that range from data access and visibility, to protection and application integration, to security and compliance, to labor-intensive processes for data placement. The NetApp Data Fabric offers a range of hybrid cloud data services to address these challenges and allow organizations to efficiently manage and derive value from the totality of their data.”

The NetApp Data Fabric has recently been augmented with new software releases including for NetApp SolidFire Element OS, StorageGRID Webscale, ONTAP and OnCommand Insight software. As key elements to the NetApp Data Fabric, this software is supposed to bring integrated hybrid cloud data services to help customers work with contemporary datacenter architectures.

NetApp VP for product Brett Roscoe insists that his firm’s approach to data fabric technologies has done well due to the dramatic increase in data centric workloads in the cloud. "[In this world,] the need for managing data across traditional IT and multiple cloud solutions becomes critical,” said Roscoe.

Tailored togs or toga?

#NetApp #SolidFire appears to have the stitching pattern to produce a coordinated piece of fabric. The technology provides integration across operating systems and the firm’s SolidFire Element OS allows customers to consume (arguably) more agile, software-defined storage in a way that best aligns with their business goals. The #StorageGRID Webscale 11 product provides  integration with Amazon Web Services ( #AWS ) for implementation of hybrid cloud data pipelines with AWS.

NetApp ONTAP 9.3 software is designed to enhance performance and simplify setup with streamlined application of QoS (Quality of Service) policies and automatically adapts QoS levels to changes in the workload.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/adrianbridgwater/2017/10/09/netapp-unravels-data-fabric-tailored-togs-or-tatty-toga/?c=0&s=trending#12987a591365

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