As organizations modernize their infrastructure and migrate workloads to the cloud, many seek a seamless way to migrate and scale their VMware environments without disrupting operations.
With NetApp® Cloud Volumes ONTAP® software and Microsoft Azure VMware Solution, you’ll be able to extend or migrate block-based VMware workloads to Azure with minimal disruption—bringing enterprise-grade storage efficiency, data protection, and flexibility to VMware workloads running in Azure.
This integration will streamline Virtual Machine Disk migrations and accelerate time to value for cloud initiatives.
NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP and Azure VMware Solution (AVS) are both proven, mature offerings. Cloud Volumes ONTAP is a self-managed, multicloud, unified storage solution built on NetApp ONTAP software. AVS is Microsoft Azure’s fully managed VMware environment, enabling customers to run VMware vSphere, vSAN, and NSX-T natively on Azure.
AVS and Cloud Volumes ONTAP will work together to migrate on premises VMware block-based workloads to Azure. This pairing will deliver expanded storage capacity, elastic scalability, and the full suite of enterprise class ONTAP capabilities—including multiprotocol access, space efficient NetApp Snapshot™ copies and clones, and advanced storage efficiencies. With built in AES256 encryption for data in flight, Cloud Volumes ONTAP provides robust, native security without the complexity of third-party tools.
With AVS, you receive:
- VMware vCenter Server, vSAN, vSphere, and NSX
- Integration with Azure services through ExpressRoute
- Microsoft managed VMware private clouds (validated)
- Seamless migration of on-premises workloads and deployment of new VMs
Benefits for on-premises ONTAP users
- Enterprise-grade storage in the cloud. Access the same ONTAP data management features you trust—deduplication, compression, Snapshot copies, and replication—now for VMware workloads running in AVS.
- Cost optimization. Automatically tier cold data to lower cost Azure Blob storage, reducing spending without sacrificing performance.
- Simplify workload mobility in hybrid cloud environments. Seamlessly lift and shift VMware workloads to Azure without re-architecting applications—preserving consistent storage operations and data protection policies across on-premises and cloud environments.
- Cloud-based disaster recovery. Use NetApp SnapMirror® technology to replicate data from on-premises ONTAP systems to Cloud Volumes ONTAP in Azure. In a disaster, AVS provides a VMware-consistent recovery environment, minimizing downtime and delivering business continuity.
Built for real-world use cases
This integration will be ideal for ONTAP users with existing VMware on-premises block environments who intend to migrate to Microsoft Azure, with possible use cases including:
- Block workload migration. Connect Cloud Volumes ONTAP to cloud compute instances through block-based SAN protocols like iSCSI, or file-based NAS protocols like CIFS/SMB and NFS.
- Enterprise applications and databases. Cloud Volumes ONTAP delivers high performance and fast access to customer data on applications such as customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), electronic design automation (EDA), media and entertainment (M&E) post-production, financial services, health care, and life sciences.
- Backup and disaster recovery. Use SnapMirror to replicate data from an on-premises environment to the cloud. If a primary system fails, SnapMirror promotes business continuity and minimal downtime by enabling quick failover to the secondary system. You can also create automated, point-in-time, incremental backups of your data using Snapshot technology.
- Development and testing. Use NetApp FlexClone® technology to create instant, space-efficient clones for DevTest environments, reducing storage costs.
Discover what’s next
We’re inviting customer nominations for participation in the upcoming private preview for the Cloud Volumes ONTAP + AVS integration (coming in the late first/early second quarter of 2026). Participants will gain early access to the integration; personalized, white-glove onboarding; and a unique opportunity to directly influence the final feature set before public release.
Participants commit to a biweekly, 30-minute product and architecture call with our product and engineering teams, giving you a direct voice in shaping this joint solution and influencing our roadmap.
Interested? To get started, contact your NetApp sales representative or our product team lead, Michal Gliksman.
