Hi there!
Our data fabric vision, including ONTAP Cloud, is not a single product or proscribed configuration - it is a set of technologies that enables flexibility in your data management.
Reading through your question, I think there's a technology leap you've missed out on which would make this a much easier proposition - running Clustered ONTAP on-premises.
Specifically to your questions:
- Yes, we have significant customers using ONTAP Cloud for DR from production physical systems
- No - ONTAP Cloud is only a viable target for Clustered ONTAP systems, running 9.3 or later.
- Yes
Please contact your local NetApp solutions team to engage in further discussions on this platform. We are keen to see customer success and have great technical resources available to assist.
Hope this helps!