NetApp, a data infrastructure company, has expanded its partnership with Google Cloud to help organizations make the most of their data for generative AI (GenAI) and other hybrid cloud workloads.

Together, they’ve introduced the Flex service level for Google Cloud NetApp Volumes, which offers storage volumes of almost any size. NetApp is also previewing its GenAI toolkit and reference architecture, designed to support retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) operations on the Google Cloud Vertex AI platform.

More Flexible Data Storage for Google Cloud NetApp Volumes

Google Cloud and NetApp are launching a new service level called Flex, providing customers with more control over their storage and performance to meet the specific needs of their cloud workloads.

The demand for data-intensive applications and insights is driving the need for a more flexible approach to data storage that allows businesses to move and store data wherever needed. Through this expanded partnership, NetApp is delivering a flexible service that can be run on existing Google Cloud infrastructure without sacrificing enterprise data management capabilities.

With the addition of Flex, customers using NetApp Volumes can now choose from four service levels, each designed to meet specific needs:

• Standard: Reliable, general-purpose storage with 16MiB/sec per TiB of performance, ideal for workloads like file shares, virtual machines (VMs), and DevTest environments.
• Premium: High-performance storage with 64MiB/sec per TiB of performance, suitable for file shares, VMs, and databases.
• Extreme: Low-latency, high-throughput storage with 128MiB/sec per TiB of performance, perfect for high-performance databases and low-latency applications.
• Flex: Scalable storage volumes ranging from 1 GiB to 100 TiB, with performance up to 1 GiB/s. This adaptable service level supports a wide variety of use cases, including AI.

The Flex service level is expected to be generally available by Q2 2024 across 15 Google Cloud regions, with plans to expand to more regions by the end of the year.

Supporting Generative AI with Google Cloud

NetApp is also launching a preview of its GenAI toolkit, which includes a reference architecture to speed up the implementation of RAG operations. This toolkit allows secure and automated workflows that connect data in NetApp Volumes with the Google Cloud Vertex AI platform, enabling the generation of high-quality, relevant insights and automations.

NetApp’s capabilities support efficient AI data pipelines, offering tools for data classification, tagging, mobility, and cloning, no matter where the data resides. These features help businesses securely and efficiently run their GenAI processes.

The GenAI toolkit includes several unique features:

• Common data footprint everywhere: NetApp ONTAP allows businesses to integrate data from any environment for their RAG processes, streamlining operations while reducing risk, cost, and time to results.
• Automated classification and tagging: NetApp’s BlueXP classification service tags data automatically to ensure the right data is used during both the ingest and inferencing phases, while also protecting sensitive information.
• Fast, scalable snapshots: ONTAP Snapshot enables near-instant, space-efficient creation of copies of vector stores and databases, providing quick rollbacks if data gets corrupted or forwards for point-in-time analysis.
• Real-time cloning at scale: ONTAP FlexClone technology creates instant clones of vector index stores, allowing relevant data to be made instantly available for different queries without affecting the core production data.

With the GenAI toolkit, organizations can leverage AI to produce specific, relevant insights that offer a competitive edge.