Because one of the problems on the MSP side is they’re having that challenge of how to get predictable margins, and then how to get a predictable business that they can scale. So we’ve gone and taken the extra step of taking on that risk, which is a huge benefit to the MSP community. So gone are the days where you are acquiring all this infrastructure to run these desktops and then the price changes every month based on who used what, where and when. If you take just those three services, but then you combine them with Azure Virtual Desktop, Microsoft Defender for Cloud and Azure Log Analytics, there’s a whole bunch of services that we’ve incorporated on the Microsoft side, and we’ve bundled that up into a managed service offering.Īnd then we’ve also chosen to take on the risk by offering it at a fixed price per seat, per month. When NetApp acquired CloudJumper, they saw this opportunity once they got to know the technology to combine it not just with Azure NetApp Files, which is now the gold standard for file storage up in the Azure Cloud, but also the NetApp Cloud Insights technology they acquired as well as the Spot technology like Spot Elastigroup. And one of the places they looked at was at the desktop and what was happening at the endpoint. But this was the opportunity to start building a cloud portfolio, and they looked at the back end, they looked at security, they looked at observability and discovery. They’ve been in the storage business for 30 years gold, gold standard for file storage. And what got me interested about this era of NetApp is that, starting about five years ago, NetApp started acquiring companies that had built infrastructure tools and infrastructure technology that was focused on cloud-first. And soon after the acquisition, they saw an opportunity, as the marketplace shifted, as Microsoft began to invest more in the Azure Virtual Desktop, they saw an opportunity to take the learnings that they had had as CloudJumper as a software vendor and even as a service provider and colocation to take that to a cloud-first model. So NetApp acquired CloudJumper about two and a half years ago. Here is what Treuhaft had to say in his interview with CRN US.ĭuring your eight months with Spot PC, what are some of the changes that have happened there? NetApp is making significant moves to expand its cloud-first focus to MSPs.

And so we simplify all that for them,” he said. … One of the problems on the MSP side is they’re having that challenge of how to get predictable margins and then how to get a predictable business that they can scale. “Gone are the days where you are acquiring all this infrastructure to run these desktops and then the price changes every month based on who used what, where and when. NetApp has bundled its technology with things like Azure Virtual Desktop, Microsoft Defender for Cloud and Azure Log Analytics into a managed services offering that takes on the risk of providing such services at a fixed price per seat, per month, he said. And that approach, Treuhaft said, fits the needs of around 300 MSPs who have already engaged with Spot and CloudJumper technologies. Jeff Treuhaft, general manager for Spot PC, who joined Spot in November, told CRN US in an exclusive interview that NetApp has been taking a cloud-first approach to its business for some time by tying its cloud infrastructure technologies to Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform. Hidden under all that has been a move by NetApp to play a bigger role in managed services, an area that it has not been known for in the past. Today’s NetApp is also moving quickly to acquire and integrate technology that helps businesses build cloud infrastructures, including cloud compute optimisation via its Spot acquisition, end-to-end cloud management via its CloudCheckr acquisition, and virtual desktop infrastructure integration via its CloudJumper acquisition. NetApp is the largest independent storage vendor, a pioneer in file-based storage but also in making on-premises storage operate seamlessly in the cloud and in breaking the tie between data stored using NetApp technology and its own hardware.īut that is now only half the story.

Ask almost anyone who NetApp is, and the answer will likely be along the lines of, “It’s a storage company.” And whoever answered that way would mostly be correct.

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