As enterprise environments continue to modernize, virtualization remains a critical foundation. Most organizations now run a mix of virtual machines and containers across on‑premises and cloud environments—and increasingly on Red Hat OpenShift.
But as OpenShift Virtualization deployments scale, many teams are discovering that traditional data protection methods don’t scale with them.
Full‑disk VM scans lead to longer backup windows, unpredictable recovery times, and growing operational risk. When infrastructure teams are expected to meet strict RPOs and RTOs—while also supporting cloud migration, AI workloads, and platform modernization—those inefficiencies quickly become blockers.
That’s where continued innovation between NetApp and Red Hat is making a difference.
Why Backup and Recovery Becomes Harder at Scale
As more workloads move onto OpenShift Virtualization, the underlying data footprint grows quickly. Legacy VM backup tools typically rely on rescanning entire disks, even when only small portions of the data have changed.
At scale, this results in:
- Backups that take longer as environments grow
- Recovery timelines that are difficult to predict
- Increased storage consumption and data movement
- Added compute overhead on OpenShift clusters
To operate virtualized platforms with confidence, IT teams need a more efficient, scalable approach to protecting VM and container workloads.
Block-Level Change Tracking for OpenShift Virtualization
NetApp’s latest updates introduce block‑level change tracking for virtual machines running on Red Hat OpenShift with NetApp ONTAP® storage.
Instead of repeatedly scanning full VM disks, only changed blocks are captured after the initial backup. This enables incremental‑foreverbackups that are faster, more efficient, and more predictable over time.
For OpenShift environments, this translates into:
- Consistently shorter backup windows
- Faster, more reliable restores
- Preserved storage efficiency without data rehydration
- Reduced compute impact on application clusters
NetApp Backup and Recovery for Red Hat OpenShift
NetApp Backup and Recovery provides a simple, cost‑effective way to protect OpenShift applications and OpenShift Virtualization workloads on ONTAP. Recent enhancements extend full support for virtual machines, with automation designed specifically for VM‑centric workflows.
Key capabilities include:
- VM‑granular backup and restore operations
- Automated protection and recovery workflows
- Incremental‑forever backups with Change Block Tracking
- Offloading backup processing away from OpenShift compute
These features help teams meet backup and recovery objectives even as VM density and data volumes continue to grow.
From Backup to Orchestrated Disaster Recovery
Many organizations are also looking to simplify disaster recovery for Kubernetes‑based virtual machines.
NetApp is expanding support beyond backups with NetApp Disaster Recovery for Red Hat OpenShift and OpenShift Virtualization, now available in public preview. This DR‑as‑a‑service offering provides orchestrated failover and failback workflows designed for modern virtualized environments.
With guided recovery operations and tight integration with ONTAP storage, teams can implement disaster recovery without the complexity of traditional DR tooling.
More Flexibility in the Public Cloud
Hybrid and multicloud consistency is another key requirement for modern platforms.
Support for Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization on Google Cloud, powered by Google Cloud NetApp Volumes and the Trident CSI driver, is now generally available with certified support. This allows organizations to run VMs and containers together on OpenShift in the cloud while maintaining operational consistency with on‑premises environments.
Scaling Storage Operations with Trident Parallelism
As OpenShift environments grow, storage provisioning speed matters.
New Trident Parallelism enhancements allow storage operations to run concurrently rather than serially in supported environments such as Google Cloud NetApp Volumes and Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP. This removes bottlenecks and helps platforms scale more smoothly as demand increases.
Building Virtualized Platforms with Confidence
Running virtual machines and containers on OpenShift at enterprise scale requires data protection that’s designed for growth not retrofitted from legacy architectures.
Through continued collaboration, NetApp and Red Hat are delivering faster backups, more predictable recovery, simpler disaster recovery, and consistent hybrid cloud operations. The result is a stronger foundation for teams modernizing their virtualized environments while maintaining resilience and control.
If you’re attending Red Hat Summit 2026, stop by the NetApp booth (#538) to learn more and see these capabilities in action.
