NetApp’s Role in Modernizing Enterprise Data and ERP Systems
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Key Takeaways
⇨ NetApp provides solutions that help enterprises overcome data silos, enhance integration, and improve agility across on-premises and multi-cloud environments with its flagship data management software, ONTAP.
⇨ Security and compliance are paramount for enterprises, and NetApp's multi-layered security approach—including real-time monitoring, tamper-proof backups, and a managed ransomware recovery service—ensures protection and mitigates risks associated with cyber threats.
⇨ As enterprises expand, NetApp's hybrid cloud and storage-as-a-service offerings enable seamless scaling of ERP systems, allowing organizations to manage increasing workloads efficiently while maintaining performance and optimizing costs.
In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, enterprises must modernize their operations and harness data from on-premises and multiple cloud environments to swiftly generate actionable insights and drive informed decision-making. Enterprise IT leaders face mounting challenges in managing data and ensuring seamless Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) operations. Issues such as data silos, integration complexity, security risks, and scalability constraints can hinder business performance. Enter NetApp, a global leader in data storage and cloud solutions, which empowers organizations to transform through data with a suite of products designed to alleviate these challenges. By leveraging NetApp’s technologies, enterprises can enhance efficiency, speed, security, and agility across their ERP ecosystems, paving the way for sustained growth and innovation.
Breaking Down Data Silos
Data silos are a common issue in large enterprises, preventing seamless data access and integration across departments. NetApp ONTAP, the company’s flagship data management software, provides a unified platform that enables enterprises to consolidate data across on-premises, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments.
ONTAP allows for multi-protocol support and enables simultaneous access to data across NAS (NFS, SMB) and SAN (iSCSI, FC) protocols, eliminating incompatibility issues. NetApp’s FabricPool feature ensures that inactive data is automatically tiered to cost-effective storage (e.g., AWS S3, Azure Blob), reducing overall storage costs while maintaining accessibility.
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By deploying ONTAP, enterprises can expand and maximize efficient data movement across on premises, hybrid and cloud environments with dependable availability, agility and performance.
Enhancing Security and Compliance
Security is a top concern for enterprises, especially when ERP systems store financial data, customer records, and intellectual property. NetApp offers a multi-layered approach to protect against data breaches and ransomware attacks:
Data Infrastructure Insights provides real-time monitoring and anomaly detection, allowing IT teams to proactively identify security threats before they disrupt ERP operations. Meanwhile, NetApp SnapLock and Snapshot technologies create tamper-proof backups, ensuring critical ERP data remains recoverable in the event of a cyberattack.
Ransomware Protection and Recovery Service is a managed service that includes an initial protection and security assessment, installation, and setup of NetApp storage and software, security monitoring and support for data recovery if a ransomware attack occur. The Ransomware Recovery Guarantee warrants that if backup Snapshot copies cannot be recovered with help from NetApp, compensation will be offered.
NetApp solutions can also help enterprises meet stringent regulatory requirements (e.g., GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA) through built-in encryption, access control, and audit logging.
With NetApp’s security-first approach, enterprises can minimize downtime and financial loss from cyber threats while maintaining compliance across industries and have confidence in protecting their data.
Scaling ERP Systems Seamlessly
As enterprises grow, ERP systems must scale to support increasing data volumes and transactions. Traditional on-premise infrastructure often struggles with scalability, but NetApp’s hybrid cloud and storage-as-a-service (STaaS) solutions offer a more flexible approach.
NetApp’s Keystone pay-as-you-go storage subscription allows enterprises to scale ERP workloads on demand without overprovisioning resources. Cloud Volumes ONTAP enables seamless migration of ERP data to the cloud while maintaining performance, data protection, and cost optimization.
By leveraging NetApp’s cloud-integrated solutions, enterprises can achieve elasticity, cost efficiency, and business continuity as their ERP requirements evolve.
What this means for SAP Insiders
Data management efficiency leads to tangible business outcomes. NetApp customer Be The Match, operated by the National Marrow Donor Program, sought to enhance the performance, mobility, and recoverability of its applications, managing approximately one petabyte of databases and files. By using NetApp ONTAP all-flash storage and SnapCenter for automated data management, they saw faster donor-patient matching, improved DevOps research, easier database management, and quicker recovery times. These enhancements saved lives and doubled the number of successful patient-donor matches each year. NetApp technologies played a crucial role in this transformation, demonstrating their positive impact on healthcare outcomes.
The enterprise data management market is growing. The Enterprise Data Management (EDM) market is experiencing significant growth, driven by the increasing volume of data generated by organizations and the need for effective data governance and analytics. In 2024, the EDM market was valued at approximately $110.53 billion, and it’s anticipated to reach $221.58 billion by 2030, exhibiting a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 12.4%. This creates opportunities as organizations prioritize data quality and governance to ensure accurate and reliable data for decision-making, and the adoption of cloud-based EDM solutions is increasing, offering scalability, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness.
NetApp ONTAP works with SAP’s data management solutions. NetApp ONTAP provides a highly efficient, secure, and scalable storage solution for SAP environments, ensuring optimal performance and data protection. By integrating seamlessly with SAP, ONTAP streamlines data management with automated tiering, snapshots, and seamless cloud integration, reducing operational complexity. ONTAP’s security features, including encryption and ransomware protection, safeguard critical SAP workloads. Its high availability and disaster recovery capabilities minimize downtime, ensuring business continuity. With flexible deployment options—on-premises, hybrid, or cloud—NetApp ONTAP enhances agility, lowers costs, and accelerates SAP modernization efforts. The combination of NetApp technologies and SAP integration drives efficiency and reliability, empowering businesses to achieve their goals with confidence.
