NetApp Signs Strategic Collaboration Agreement with AWS to Enhance Cloud-Based Data Services

Rhea-AI Summary

NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP) has announced the expansion of its decade-long relationship with Amazon Web Services (AWS) through a new Strategic Collaboration Agreement (SCA). This agreement aims to accelerate generative AI efforts, simplify transactions, and deliver CloudOps value to joint customers. Key highlights include:

1. Accelerating Generative AI: NetApp released BlueXP workload factory to connect ONTAP with foundation models through Amazon Bedrock.

2. Simplifying Transactions: Increased AWS Marketplace purchases, especially for NetApp CloudOps solutions.

3. Delivering CloudOps Value: Positioning NetApp as a trusted provider of CloudOps solutions for AWS environments.

The collaboration builds on NetApp's existing achievements, including over a dozen AWS competencies and the unique Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP service.

Positive

• Expansion of strategic partnership with AWS, potentially leading to increased market reach
• Launch of BlueXP workload factory to enhance generative AI capabilities
• Simplified transaction process through increased AWS Marketplace purchases
• Strengthened position as a trusted CloudOps solutions provider for AWS environments
• Development of reference architecture guidance for integrating enterprise data with generative AI pipelines

Negative

• None.

Insights

Cloud Technology Expert

NetApp's expanded collaboration with AWS marks a significant milestone in cloud-based data services. The new Strategic Collaboration Agreement (SCA) focuses on three key areas: accelerating generative AI efforts, simplifying transactions and delivering CloudOps value. This partnership is particularly noteworthy for its potential impact on generative AI applications.

The introduction of BlueXP workload factory, which connects ONTAP with foundation models through Amazon Bedrock, is a game-changer. This integration, along with the reference architecture for retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), enables enterprises to leverage their proprietary data securely in AI pipelines. For investors, this positions NetApp as a key player in the rapidly growing AI infrastructure market.

The emphasis on simplifying transactions through increased AWS Marketplace purchases could lead to accelerated revenue growth for NetApp's CloudOps solutions. This streamlined process may result in faster adoption rates and potentially higher sales volumes.

Financial Analyst

From a financial perspective, this expanded partnership with AWS is likely to have a positive impact on NetApp's bottom line. The company's position as the only enterprise storage vendor with a first-party data storage service natively built on AWS (Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP) gives it a unique competitive advantage in the cloud storage market.

The focus on CloudOps solutions like Spot by NetApp and Cloud Insights could lead to increased recurring revenue streams. These solutions, which optimize cloud operations and costs, are particularly attractive in the current economic climate where businesses are looking to maximize their cloud investments.

Investors should note the potential for revenue growth from increased AWS Marketplace purchases and the simplified transaction process. This could lead to faster deal closures and potentially higher sales volumes, positively impacting NetApp's financial performance in the coming quarters.

AI and Machine Learning Specialist

The collaboration between NetApp and AWS in the realm of generative AI is particularly exciting. The integration of NetApp's data management capabilities with AWS's AI services, such as Amazon Bedrock, creates a powerful ecosystem for enterprises looking to leverage generative AI.

The reference architecture for retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) is a significant development. RAG allows companies to enhance large language models with their proprietary data, leading to more accurate and contextually relevant AI outputs. This addresses a key challenge in enterprise AI adoption - the need to utilize private, domain-specific data securely.

Instaclustr by NetApp's management of open source vector databases is important for RAG architectures. Vector databases are essential for efficient similarity searches, a core component of many AI applications. This positions NetApp as a key enabler in the AI infrastructure stack, potentially leading to increased adoption of their solutions in AI-driven enterprises.

Signed SCA with AWS delivers performance and scalability for modern data workloads like Generative AI

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- NetApp® (NASDAQ: NTAP), the intelligent data infrastructure company, today announced the expansion of its decade-long relationship with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to help joint customers continuously fuel business growth and innovation in the artificial intelligence (AI) era. Signing a new Strategic Collaboration Agreement (SCA) builds on the commitment to benefit joint customers by accelerating generative AI efforts, simplifying transactions, and delivering CloudOps value.

NetApp and AWS have worked together for over a decade to jointly accelerate innovation for thousands of customers worldwide. In that time, NetApp has achieved more than a dozen AWS competencies, including the Manufacturing and Industrial Software, Financial Services Technology, and Cloud Operations Software competencies. AWS Competencies validate AWS Partners with demonstrated AWS technical expertise and proven customer success. NetApp is the only enterprise storage vendor with a first-party data storage service natively built on AWS with Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP^®, a service that unlocks the best of cloud for customers by delivering the industry-leading data management operating system on AWS. The innovation between NetApp and AWS provides customers with a strong technology foundation for cloud-based data and operations services that prepares them to overcome current and future challenges. NetApp also supports operations for cloud infrastructure environments, including AWS, with CloudOps solutions such as Spot by NetApp, NetApp Cloud Insights, and Instaclustr by NetApp. These solutions combine machine learning (ML) and analytics to simplify, automate, and optimize operations in the cloud, helping customers reduce costs, secure their data, and get the most out of their cloud investments.

“With NetApp cloud solutions on AWS, our customers maintain full control over their data across their entire hybrid cloud environment while benefiting from industry-leading scalability, data availability, security, and performance of AWS,” said Ashish Dhawan, Senior Vice President of Cloud Sales at NetApp. “That’s all made possible because our engineering teams are so in sync. Together, NetApp and AWS help customers continuously fuel business growth and innovation by delivering data-rich experiences through workload migration and new application deployments on AWS.”

The expansion of the collaboration between NetApp and AWS will benefit customers by:

• Accelerating Generative AI Efforts: This SCA will accelerate generative AI efforts, helping customers continuously fuel business growth and innovation by delivering data-rich experiences through workload migration and new application deployments on AWS. NetApp recently released BlueXP workload factory to help customers connect ONTAP with foundation models (FMs) through Amazon Bedrock and extend their on-premises data estate for building generative AI applications. AWS and NetApp also published reference architecture guidance for customers to integrate proprietary enterprise data on FSx for ONTAP into generative AI pipelines using retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and APIs for Amazon Bedrock, enabling secure, high-performance use with foundation models. The collaboration between AWS and NetApp simplifies, accelerates, and enables the ability to generate unique, high-quality, and ultra-relevant data insights. Instaclustr by NetApp manages open source vector databases, a crucial component in the delivery of fast and accurate results in RAG architectures. The close collaboration between AWS and NetApp on these advanced workloads makes it simpler and faster for customers to unlock value from their data using RAG.
• Simplifying Transactions: This SCA will enable increased AWS Marketplace purchases, especially for NetApp CloudOps solutions, to streamline processes for customers. It will also enable customers to more easily implement technical proof of concepts to evaluate how NetApp solutions on AWS can support their operations.
• Delivering CloudOps Value: This SCA better positions NetApp as a trusted provider of CloudOps solutions for AWS environments. Investments from AWS enable NetApp to better position and deliver cost and performance optimization solutions through the AWS Marketplace. NetApp’s close relationship with AWS shows customers they can trust that NetApp solutions will integrate seamlessly into their cloud operations and help them achieve their goals for the performance, protection, scalability, and availability of their workloads and data.

Additional Resources

• NetApp Expands Intelligent Data Infrastructure Capabilities to Power Strategic Cloud Workloads
• Amazon FSx For NetApp ONTAP: Easily Launch, Run, And Scale Apps on AWS

About NetApp

NetApp is the intelligent data infrastructure company, combining unified data storage, integrated data services, and CloudOps solutions to turn a world of disruption into opportunity for every customer. NetApp creates silo-free infrastructure, harnessing observability and AI to enable the industry’s best data management. As the only enterprise-grade storage service natively embedded in the world’s biggest clouds, our data storage delivers seamless flexibility. In addition, our data services create a data advantage through superior cyber resilience, governance, and application agility. Our CloudOps solutions provide continuous optimization of performance and efficiency through observability and AI. No matter the data type, workload, or environment, with NetApp you can transform your data infrastructure to realize your business possibilities. Learn more at www.netapp.com or follow us on X, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

NETAPP, the NETAPP logo, and the marks listed at www.netapp.com/TM are trademarks of NetApp, Inc. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240919272096/en/

Media Contact:

Kenya Hayes

NetApp

kenya.hayes@netapp.com

Investor Contact:

Kris Newton

NetApp

kris.newton@netapp.com

Source: NetApp

FAQ

What is the main purpose of NetApp's new Strategic Collaboration Agreement with AWS?

The main purpose is to accelerate generative AI efforts, simplify transactions, and deliver CloudOps value to joint customers, enhancing cloud-based data services and innovation.

How does the NetApp (NTAP) and AWS collaboration benefit customers in terms of generative AI?

The collaboration accelerates generative AI efforts by providing tools like BlueXP workload factory to connect ONTAP with foundation models through Amazon Bedrock, and offering reference architecture guidance for integrating enterprise data into generative AI pipelines.

What is Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP and how does it relate to the NTAP-AWS partnership?

Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP is a first-party data storage service natively built on AWS, offering NetApp's data management operating system on AWS. It's a unique offering that showcases the strong partnership between NetApp and AWS.

How will the new agreement between NetApp (NTAP) and AWS simplify transactions for customers?

The agreement will enable increased AWS Marketplace purchases, especially for NetApp CloudOps solutions, streamlining processes for customers and making it easier to implement technical proof of concepts.