A couple of months ago I wrote an article about the importance of enterprise data services inside of the public cloud (Building a modern data platform – exploiting the cloud) and why they are crucial to IT strategies of organisations as they look to transition to the public cloud.
The idea of natively been able to access data services that are commonplace In our datacentres such as the ability to apply service levels to performance, storage efficiencies and other enterprise-level capabilities 
to our cloud apps is very attractive.
In this week’s episode we take a look at one such solution, in the first in a series of shows recorded at some of the recent Tech Conferences I’ve visited, I’m joined by Lee Giles a Senior Manager from NetApp’s Cloud Business Division at their Insight Conference, to discuss Azure NetApp Files, an enterprise data services solution available natively inside Microsoft’s Azure datacentres.
Azure NetApp files is a very interesting technology and another example of the fascinating work NetApp’s cloud business unit is doing in extending enterprise data services to the locations we need them, on-prem, near to and inside the public cloud.
I discuss with Lee what Azure NetApp Files is, and why it was developed. We explore some of the challenges of public cloud storage and how it often leads to all of those good storage management practices you are used to on-prem having to be abandoned as we move into the cloud.
We look at why the ability to deliver a “familiar” experience has great advantages when it comes to speed and agility and Lee explains to us why stripping away the complexity of cloud storage is like getting yourself a Ferrari for $20 an hour!
I ask Lee about the technical deployment of Azure NetApp files and why it is different to solutions that are “near the cloud”. We also look at Microsoft’s view of the technology and the benefits they see in working with NetApp to deliver this service.
Lee also shares some of the planned developments as well as some of the initial use cases for the service. Finally, he explains how you can get access to the preview service and test out Azure NetApp files for yourself and see if it can help meet some of your public cloud storage challenges.
For more details on the service, as well as where to sign up to access the preview you can visit the Azure Storage Site here https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/services/storage/netapp/
If you have other questions then you can contact Lee, via email at lee.jiles@netapp.com.
Azure NetApp files is a really interesting option for public cloud storage and well worth investigating.
I hope you enjoyed the show and as always, thanks for listening.
Techstringy 