Storage News

NetApp Plans SMB Data Protection Cloud Services

NetApp is expanding its relationship with Microsoft to bring enterprise-level data center management tools and services to small businesses. As noted in this report on IT Channel Planet, the two vendors said that they are collaborating to leverage the Dynamic Data Center Toolkit for Hosters--which contains sample code and direction for constructing cloud services backed by Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V and Microsoft’s System Center Suite--to help service providers offer cloud-based data protection capabilities such as disaster recovery, clustered failover, backup and recovery to SMBs.

"'SMB customers have many of the same disaster recovery and business continuity requirements as large enterprise organizations, but often times don't have the necessary skill set or budget needed to achieve the desired results,' said Laura DuBois, International Data Corp. program vice president, Storage Software and Solutions.

"'Solutions that address this gap by providing enterprise-level data protection along with the support and guidance needed to deploy will be integral in helping SMBs realize the true benefits of a cloud infrastructure,' DuBois said."