By Matt Norton

IT professionals are in an eternal search for new ways to spend less. Being able to deliver the same level of service, with a small hit to cost centers, is the dream of ever developer and finance manager.

That’s why NetApp IT instituted SmartParking for our CloudOne Infrastructure-as-a-Service platform. This automated process is quite simple. Virtual Machines can be scheduled to be turned on and off on regular schedules. This has an appreciable impact on costs for VMs running on the public cloud.

Our initial roll-out includes Amazon Web Services. Azure will be added soon.

Like most automation processes, SmartParking is a fire-and-forget process. VMs require a one-time setup to turn off machines on a weekly or long-term cadence. There are pre-loaded schedules or custom schedules to meet specific needs, like end-of-year shutdowns.

This is part of NetApp IT’s continuous improvement strategy to reduce costs, while giving developers the tools they need to provide full support to the organization. SmartParking, combined with Spot by NetApp, are unique tools to allow us to fully leverage the power and scalability of the public cloud, without taking on burdensome costs.

This is part of all part of our robust FinOps model that enables us to leverage the hybrid cloud to maximize value from our cloud spend. This model and its policies and best practices have enabled NetApp IT to continue to support growth, while finding new and innovative ways to keep costs reasonable.

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Matt Norton

Matt Norton is a senior system administrator for Cloud and Compute Services at NetApp. Matt designs, implements, and supports infrastructure services for the NetApp global enterprise and creates user interfaces for the internal CloudOne platform that includes DevOps, IaaS, PaaS, DBaaS, and CaaS.