Cloud.com, NetApp link on cloud solutions

Open source cloud software developer Cloud.com announced that it has joined NetApp’s Alliance Partner Program in an effort to make its CloudStack infrastructure-as-a-service platform more integrated with NetApp’s cloud-based storage systems.

Cloud.com’s integration with NetApp lets the company directly integrate with the NetApp’s OnCommand management software to help automate provisioning volumes on the storage system, create Logical Unit Numbers (LUNs) of administrator-specified sizes and perform LUN masking. Customers also can use NetApp Data ONTAP platform, which allows for the creation and management of storage pools.

The goal of the alliance is to address enterprise requirements for both public and private cloud operations more completely, said Peder Ulander, chief marketing officer for Cloud.com, adding that a growing number of Cloud.com’s customers are already using NetApp’s storage solutions to some degree.

“There’s a large demand for what NetApp is doing with regard to storage,” he said. “The reality is that need for backup and storage is one of the most difficult aspects of a cloud deployment.”

The importance of backup and storage is particularly prominent in situations where regulation and compliance are concerned, Ulander said—something that is coming more into light as cloud usage becomes more widespread.

“I don’t think people looked at cloud beyond virtualization for quite some time now, and maybe in a lot of the deployments, regulation and compliance were not that important,” he said. “We saw early on that those are the things that would be absolutely critical.”