NetApp has a nasty way of dealing with the license for the product's on-premises virtual NetApp appliance that you need in your whole architecture, and it is not directly linked to NetApp Cloud Backup. It is not a feature that I want to change in NetApp Cloud Backup because the cloud backup service is architectured in a way that makes it available to users, so it looks pretty good to me. When you go to the other side, you can see what you want to have on-premises for the main side in order to have backup in the cloud via NetApp Cloud Backup. With the on-premises part, you need to have either a physical NetApp or a virtual NetApp. You only have two options for primary storage from the network. In the physical cases, it is pretty straightforward as you have pricing and something like a grid with your NetApp. The sales representatives explain how much it will cost you to have some physical NetApp storage based on performance, types, and so on. The support contracts are for three or five years. When it comes to the virtual NetApp, you can run on top of an existing VMware tool or a recent cluster; it gets nasty because they do not let you change the licensed server. Once you deploy a virtual NetApp with a licensed server that you have on-premises, you migrate off from that, but NetApp does not let you change the licensed server, which should be really simple.
They have the support teams, so if you have any challenges around integration, upgrades, or troubleshooting on a day-to-day basis, they can help. We need visibility around the entire product roadmap, so if the versions change, we need to know what dependencies are required and how it will be phased out. I will not stick to just one or two roll-outs. Instead, we're looking at at least 10 to 15. Some may say "As long as I'm getting my work done," and that's the kind of attitude that is not tolerated. As managers, we are hard-pressed to get all the product roadmaps from vendors. NetApp helps to provide us with the visibility and support for all kinds of roll-outs and upgrades which they may have from time to time, every year or two years, or whatever. There are sometimes challenges that result in dead-ends when we're sorting out the dependencies. For example, it can be difficult to tell exactly which dependencies are required. But this is something we work out while liaising with NetApp, in addition to getting info on things like end of support timelines, and so on. All these aspects are part of our infrastructure and compliance best practices from a risk management perspective.
