At the VMware Explore event in Barcelona, VMware announced exciting new integrations with MinIO and NetApp, aimed at enhancing object storage capabilities for its managed service provider (MSP) customers.
NetApp Integration for Sovereign Cloud
NetApp introduced StorageGRID for VMware Sovereign Cloud, utilizing a plugin for VMware Cloud Director Object Storage Extension.
This integration empowers sovereign cloud customers to securely store, protect, and preserve unstructured data while adhering to global data privacy and residency regulations.
StorageGRID services are now accessible directly within the familiar VMware Cloud Director interface.
Phil Brotherton, VP of Solutions & Alliances at NetApp, emphasized, “The integration of NetApp StorageGRID with VMware Sovereign Cloud is a significant achievement for NetApp. It’s a real game changer for our customers managing unstructured data in the cloud who must maintain sovereign control at all times.”
MinIO Integration with VMware Cloud Foundation
MinIO announced a technical preview of its object storage integration with VMware Cloud Foundation via VMware Data Services Manager.
This integration combines VMware Cloud Foundation’s infrastructure with MinIO Object Store to deliver a seamless experience for mission-critical workloads. The MinIO-VMware solution will support various storage options, including vSAN, and any DVS, DHCP, or static IP pools.
MinIO CTO Ugur Tigli highlighted, “The ability to seamlessly support both virtual machines and Kubernetes provides much-needed flexibility for enterprises to modernize their infrastructure. This solution underscores the critical role of object storage in modern enterprises.”
Unified Ecosystem Enhancements
VMware Cloud Director (VCD) facilitates the delivery of VMware services through managed service providers.
It provides secure, isolated, and elastic virtual datacenter resources, including compute, network, storage, and security, in a self-service model. With the addition of NetApp’s StorageGRID, VCD’s ecosystem now includes five major object storage suppliers: Cloudian, Dell ECS, Scality RING, Amazon S3, and NetApp.
VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) is a multi-cloud software platform offering hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) that integrates vSphere, vSAN, NSX, and parts of the Aria Suite, along with Tanzu for running containers alongside virtual machines.
Data Services Manager and MinIO
VMware Data Services Manager provides a data-as-a-service toolkit for the on-demand provisioning and automated management of databases like Microsoft SQL, PostgreSQL, and MySQL in vSphere environments.
MinIO is the first third-party object store to integrate natively with VMware Data Services Manager.
Vijay Ramachandran, VP of Product Management, Storage and Data Infrastructure for VMware, stated, “VMware’s strategy is to make advanced data services, such as the MinIO Object Store, as accessible as we did for computer, networking, and storage.
Together with MinIO, we’re bringing these capabilities to VMware Cloud Foundation as a natively integrated data service.”
Additional Enhancements
Recent updates to NetApp ONTAP and ONTAP Tools for vSphere aim to streamline the provisioning, protection, and security of VMware environments on a large scale.
The redefined architecture with VMware vSphere APIs for Storage Awareness (VASA) simplifies policy-driven operations and enables cloud-like scalability. This API-centric approach facilitates IT teams to integrate with existing tools and build comprehensive workflows efficiently.
These integrations mark a significant step forward in enhancing VMware’s storage capabilities, offering MSP customers more robust and flexible storage solutions.
