This blog was updated on April 5, 2026.
Deploying production workloads to the public cloud can stall manual design cycles, inconsistent configurations, and cost surprises. NetApp® Workload Factory changes that with guided designs, automation, and continuous optimization for workloads on AWS that use Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP as the storage layer.
Use it your way
Workload Factory is available as a standalone service or as an integrated component of the NetApp Console, both free of charge. Choose the operating model that best fits your team while maintaining a consistent experience for planning, deployment, and day-2 operations.
What Workload Factory does
At its core, Workload Factory helps you assess, design, set up, and operate key workloads on FSx for ONTAP, applying vendor and industry best practices. It provides guided workflows, auto-generates Infrastructure as Code (IaC), and exposes REST APIs to integrate with your pipelines—so you can deploy faster and operate more consistently at scale.
Pick the right storage with built-in savings and TCO calculators
Not sure whether FSx for ONTAP is the right fit for a given workload? Workload Factory includes savings and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) calculators that analyze current deployments (for example, using Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS), Amazon Elastic File System (EFS), or FSx for Windows) and estimate the potential cost benefits of moving to FSx for ONTAP. You can also run what-if scenarios to model future designs before you build.
Stay well-architected and prevent drift—continuously
Workload Factory helps you build and operate well-architected workloads aligned with the AWS Well-Architected Framework. It performs daily analysis of FSx for ONTAP storage and database environments, shows a well-architected status and score, and provides actionable recommendations, including one-click fixes for many issues, to keep configurations aligned over time and guard against configuration drift. Learn how the AWS Well-Architected Framework improves your storage layer in our post.
For FSx for ONTAP file systems, Workload Factory checks snapshot and backup schedules, replication, data tiering, ransomware defenses, and capacity management—so you can remediate drift directly from a single screen. For databases, it continuously analyzes Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle (rightsizing, storage layout and configuration, high availability (HA) and disaster recovery (DR) posture, patch posture, and more) and lets you fix issues from a well-architected dashboard; there’s also a one-time assessment mode for SQL Server if you don’t want to register resources.
AWS well architected guidance for Microsoft workloads also recognizes FSx for ONTAP as an enterprise storage best practice option, reinforcing its fit for performance, data services, and cost efficiency.
Learn how to align with well-architected storage recommendations with Workload Factory in our post.
Supported workloads
- Databases: Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL — Streamline design and deployment, automate storage provisioning, and centralize operations on FSx for ONTAP.
- VMware — Assess estates and design optimized datastores for native-AWS EC2, VMware Cloud on AWS (VMC), or Amazon Elastic VMware Service (EVS).
- EDA (Semiconductor, Chip Design) — Purpose-built analytics for large EDA estates, including custom AWS tag filters, volume-level views, and latency analysis with thresholds to proactively identify bottlenecks.
- GenAI — Safely bring organizational data from FSx for ONTAP to Amazon Bedrock or Amazon Q for Business for AI applications with guardrails.
- General file and block storage — Assess estates for savings, auto-generate optimized FSx for ONTAP designs, and maintain ongoing efficiency.
Why teams use Workload Factory
- Faster deployments with guided designs and autogenerated IaC or APIs for repeatability.
- Better decisions up front using built-in savings and TCO calculators and “what if” analysis for storage choice.
- Continuous compliance and drift prevention via well-architected scoring, recommendations, and one-click fixes.
- Unified operations by running Workload Factory inside the NetApp Console—or keep it standalone if that suits your model.
Workload Factory benefits
- Cloud simplicity
Workload Factory simplifies AWS design and deployment by guiding you through best‑practice architectures, automating setup, and generating infrastructure as code—so you can move faster with confidence and avoid costly missteps.
- Outcome-driven
Focus on outcomes: faster deployments, predictable performance, lower costs, and stronger data protection—without managing the underlying infrastructure.
- Broad workload coverage
- Databases: Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL
- VMware
- EDA
- GenAI
- General file and block storage
- Zero friction adoption
Workload Factory is free to use; standard AWS resource and data transfer charges apply when you provision or manage cloud resources. It is available standalone or via the NetApp Console under Workloads.
Next steps
- Explore the Workload Factory product page to see capabilities and try it.
- Browse the Workload Factory documentation for setup, APIs, and workload-specific guides.
- Review how Workload Factory helps you operate well-architected workloads with daily analysis and one-click fixes