By Faisal Salam, Sr. Storage Engineer

You’ve likely heard much about NetApp’s new, unified control plane for hybrid multicloud environments, BlueXP. At NetApp IT, we’re excited about what the future holds for the management environment, primarily because we’ve been using key functionality for BlueXP for some time now.

Previously, part of BlueXP’s function was known as Cloud Manager, which has played a major part in simplifying data management in our robust hybrid cloud environment. We started using it to manage Cloud Volumes ONTAP – now also included as part of Blue XP – and have been only expanded our usage since.

Our pre-BlueXP usage included using it as our gateway to Cloud Volumes. It unified our data storage management into a single tool, enabling us to easily access and optimize all ONTAP deployments wherever they may be in our hybrid cloud environment. This includes hyperscalers, private cloud, or on-prem.

Another feature we’re pleased to see replicated in BlueXP is snapshots, which have vital in our data protection strategy. By constantly cloning data, we’re insuring ourselves against cataclysmic losses or security issues. The experience and ease of doing this within Cloud Manager matches the experience with BlueXP, including options to create automated schedules for regular backups. It even goes across environments and allows us to back up on-premise assets in the cloud. The familiarity is nice to have.

This kind of automation continues from Cloud Manager to BlueXP. The easy-to-use UI found in Cloud Manager found its way to the new version, with basic drag-and-drop options to complete complex tasks like migration, consolidation, or collaboration.

Cloud Manager has been the single pane of glass through which we’ve been able to easily manage and optimize ONTAP instances. It’s been with us from Cloud Volumes ONTAP to Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP. We’ve used it for on-prem instances and viewing Active IQ. This has continued with BlueXP.

Our hybrid multi-cloud environment is complex and not always easy to manage – but Cloud Manager has helped make it possible to do so. Now, with a new name and new home, we’re seeing more of the same with BlueXP and are interested to see how the platform evolves.