In a major boost for enterprise cloud migration strategies, NetApp, the intelligent data infrastructure company, has announced support for Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP as external storage for Amazon Elastic VMware Service (Amazon EVS)—a new AWS offering that enables VMware workloads to run natively within Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) environments.
Now generally available, Amazon EVS allows businesses to seamlessly extend or migrate their on-premises VMware environments to the cloud without re-platforming or re-architecting. By integrating with NetApp’s FSx for ONTAP, the service delivers advanced data protection, storage efficiency, and automation—making VMware migrations to AWS faster, simpler, and more secure.
“Customers utilizing Amazon EVS with FSx for ONTAP can now enjoy the same data efficiency, protection, and automation they trust on-premises,” said Pravjit Tiwana, SVP and GM, Cloud Storage, NetApp. “Through our collaboration with AWS, we’re making it easier to move critical workloads to the cloud and manage them at scale.”
Solving Key Challenges in Cloud Migration
Migrating mission-critical workloads to the cloud brings business agility and infrastructure cost savings—but also creates potential challenges like IT sprawl, data fragmentation, and unexpected costs. With this integration, NetApp offers a powerful solution to mitigate these issues:
Simplified VMware Migration: Amazon EVS now supports Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP as an external datastore, enabling VMware admins to use familiar tools for migrating virtual machines while enhancing performance and data resilience.
Built-in Cyber Resilience: NetApp ONTAP’s autonomous ransomware protection (ARP) and BlueXP ransomware protection service provide native detection and mitigation capabilities for workloads running in Amazon EVS.
Expanded Disaster Recovery: BlueXP’s disaster recovery for VMware now supports Amazon EVS, with flexible datastore options including NFS and VMFS, improving resilience and uptime.
Optimized for Asia Pacific Enterprises
“With the launch of Amazon EVS, we foresee incredible benefits for Asia Pacific enterprises,” said Matthew Swinbourne, CTO Cloud Architecture, NetApp Asia Pacific. “The native integration of Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP enhances security, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness for VMware workloads across the region.”
New Capabilities to Support Cloud-First Strategies
NetApp also announced the following enhancements:
Migration Advisor for Amazon EVS: Part of the BlueXP workload factory, this tool automates discovery, provisioning, and workload placement—streamlining VMware workload migrations to AWS.
Disaster Recovery Enhancements: Extended support in BlueXP ensures reliable backup and recovery for both file-based and block-based VMware datastores.
Comprehensive Ransomware Defense: ARP and BlueXP now offer real-time detection and response across hybrid environments, giving enterprises a crucial security edge.
Robin Gardner, CCO at NetApp partner Xtravirt, added, “Enabling support for FSx for ONTAP on Amazon EVS gives customers more granular control over their data. They gain robust data management, improved efficiency, and enhanced security across hybrid environments.”
