Today, at their NetApp INSIGHT 2025 event, NetApp is making multiple announcements, one of which deepens its collaboration with Google Cloud to help customers accelerate cloud transformation and address critical business challenges. The key thing here is the introduction of new block storage capabilities in Google Cloud NetApp Volumes, which will enhance unified storage for today’s most important data workloads, including virtualized environments, self-managed databases, and AI innovation. In addition, the NetApp data platform enables any Al model – whether on-premises or in any major public cloud – to securely access a customer’s entire data estate, without needing to move data between environments. New integrated caching capabilities in NetApp Volumes allow for seamless access to that unified data foundation, along with advanced new integrations with Gemini Enterprise, empowering customers to break down silos, eliminate complexity, and accelerate their AI journeys.
“We continue to work with all three of the world’s largest clouds,” said Jeff Baxter, VP of Product Marketing at NetApp. “What we are announcing here in this area is providing direct access to Google’s AI services into Google Cloud Net Volumes, which is ONTAP, running on top of Google, that we’ve had for a few years now. This will now treat it as a first cloud citizen for all of the Google Vertex AI stack.”
“With the enhancements to Google Cloud NetApp Volumes including the addition of block storage capabilities, we’re giving enterprises more flexibility and power, without added complexity,” said Pravjit Tiwana, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Cloud Storage and Services at NetApp. “These updates represent a significant leap forward. Our customers will benefit from consistent low-latency performance, enhanced data management with features like snapshots and replication, and the operational simplicity of managing both file and block storage from the same NetApp Volumes service.”
“We are doing something very similar on Azure with Azure NetApp Files,” Baxter stated. “The same process will take place to connect all of Azure’s AI services, including Azure OpenAI directly into Azure NetApp files, again, treating it like any other sort of native first-class storage on Azure. And so, again, our goal is to just be able to have our customers be able to expose their data to their choice of AI models across the cloud or on-prem, and this is a key part of it.”
New capabilities in NetApp Volumes include this increased data unification with block capabilities: With the addition of block capabilities to NetApp Volumes, the Flex service level now supports unified storage with both the NAS (NFS/SMB) and SAN (iSCSI) protocols. Adding iSCSI block support to the existing file storage service opens additional market opportunities for enterprises to use Google Cloud for their enterprise business applications, such as hosting virtualized environments and managing databases. This capability is now generally available to customers upon request.
“In Google Cloud, we have had this partnership now for, a year or more, maybe two years, and it has been for file-based data,” Baxter noted. “Google Cloud will be announcing with us that they’re adding block storage as well, so that Google Cloud NetApp volumes will become a unified storage offering, offering both file and block from NetApp directly natively within Google Cloud. So we’re excited about the expansion of the partnership with Google Cloud.
The strengthened integration with Gemini Enterprise will let customers be able to use data stored in NetApp Volumes as a native source for AI Applications to build bespoke AI agents without custom code or RAG pipelines. The tight integration between AI platforms like AI Applications and data stores like NetApp Volumes enables enterprises to incorporate context-specific data from reputable, vetted sources, which significantly improves the quality and reliability of AI-generated outputs. This is now in preview for customers upon request.
The Unified Global Namespace is being enhanced. Enterprises can now seamlessly unify their global data estate across cloud and on-premises into Google Cloud with new FlexCache capabilities in NetApp Volumes. The same capability can also extend their on-premises workloads such as Electronic Design Automation. This allows for data stored in other ONTAP-based storage in customer data centers or across multiple clouds to be instantly made visible and writeable in a NetApp Volumes environment, but with data transferred granularly only when requested. This allows for a customer’s entire hybrid cloud data estate to be seamlessly accessed in Google Cloud. Additionally, enterprises can migrate data and snapshots effortlessly between environments using SnapMirror, supporting hybrid use cases such as cloud migration, disaster recovery, and workload balancing across environments.
“Our collaboration with NetApp is built on a shared commitment to innovation and customer success,” said Sameet Agarwal, Vice President and General Manager, Storage, for Google Cloud. “Data infrastructure with built-in intelligence enables businesses to get the right data to the right place to generate useful results without unnecessary cost and complexity. By combining Google Cloud’s global infrastructure and Vertex AI with NetApp’s expertise in data management, we’re delivering integrated solutions that help enterprises transform and accelerate their digital journeys.”
“With the accelerating pace of change and innovation, enterprises need unified access to all of their data wherever it lives,” said Dave McCarthy, Research Vice President, Cloud and Edge Services, Worldwide Infrastructure Research at IDC. “NetApp’s data platform is the first unified storage built natively into the world’s largest public clouds, enabling enterprises to securely access their entire data estate, without incurring delays and costs from data movement.”