In today's data-driven world, managing and protecting your data efficiently is crucial for the success of any organization. With the rise of cloud computing, businesses are increasingly turning to cloud-based storage solutions to store and manage their data. Azure NetApp Files, a high-performance, enterprise-grade file storage service on Microsoft Azure, offers a robust and scalable solution for storing and managing data in the cloud. When combined with NetApp SnapCenter, an enterprise-grade data protection and management software, customers will avail a powerful toolset for simplified data management to achieve business resiliency.
Data is an organization's most valuable asset, particularly when stored in mission-critical databases. It is essential to safeguard this data against accidental loss or operational disruptions in order to maintain business resilience. This mitigates operational disruptions and empowers database and VM administrators to achieve faster dev-test or workload upgrades using space-efficient cloning capabilities. By tightly integrating with NetApp storage, SnapCenter performs these tasks more efficiently than native tools like Oracle RMAN and VMware vSAN Backup. SnapCenter simplifies the process of creating backups and restoring database copies, ensuring compliance with backup and restore SLAs established by organizations.
In this blog post, we will explore the benefits of using SnapCenter on Azure NetApp Files and how it can streamline your data management processes.
What is SnapCenter?
NetApp SnapCenter is a robust software that streamlines data protection and management across databases, virtual machines, file systems and storage systems. It offers a centralized platform for efficiently managing and safeguarding data, regardless of location or storage infrastructure.
Using storage-based snapshot copies, SnapCenter enables quick backup and restoration of database copies. This empowers administrators to achieve faster recovery time objectives (RTOs) and meet SLAs. SnapCenter also provides a user-friendly interface for centralized management of snapshot and backup copies, supporting MSSQL, Oracle, and SAP HANA databases on Azure NetApp Files (ANF). It handles tasks like quiescing databases, retention management, and restoration.
The Power of Azure NetApp Files
Azure NetApp Files, built on NetApp's high performant storage technology, provides a high-performance, scalable, and reliable file storage solution in the Azure cloud. It delivers enterprise-grade features such as encryption, ensuring the security of your data storage. With Azure NetApp Files, you can easily. With Azure NetApp Files, customers can easily provision and manage file shares, enabling seamless integration with existing applications and workloads.
Simplified Data Protection with SnapCenter
Starting with SnapCenter 5.0, SnapCenter recognizes databases deployed on Azure NetApp Files to offer a powerful yet simplified data management tasks. Here are some key benefits:
- Centralized Data Protection: SnapCenter allows to create and manage application-consistent snapshots of Oracle, SAP HANA, MSSQL(on SMB3) databases running on Azure NetApp Files, all in one unified console. It provides a single-pane-of-glass view for scheduling local snapshots, monitoring their status, and initiating restores, simplifying the entire data protection process.
- Application-Aware Management: SnapCenter understands different layouts of different databases and configuration such as database storage layouts, configurations and provides application-aware snapshots and recovery capabilities. This ensures the integrity and recoverability of your critical application data.
- Efficient Space Management: SnapCenter leverages NetApp's space-efficient Snapshot technology to create point-in-time copies of your data. These snapshots consume minimal storage space and can be used for backup, recovery, or cloning purposes, reducing storage costs and improving overall efficiency.
- Quick Recovery: In the event of data loss or corruption, SnapCenter empowers database administrators to quickly restore from backed up snapshots. With tighter integration between storage platform and databases, SnapCenter offers one of the fastest recovery of applications data on ANF.
- Secured: SnapCenter can be deployed on a Windows VM running in Azure VPC and manage backup and restore of databases running in that VPC, thereby reducing the risks associated with data transmitted outside customer’s digital periphery.
- Lower TCO: Azure NetApp Files customers can avail SnapCenter with no additional fees. SnapCenter is offered free of additional charge to all Azure NetApp Files customers, reducing overall TCO of customers for data protection.
Conclusion:
Managing and protecting your data in the cloud doesn't have to be complex. By combining the capabilities of SnapCenter and Azure NetApp Files, you can simplify your data management processes, improve data availability, and ensure the recoverability of critical data. Whether you need to protect your applications, streamline backup and recovery operations, or efficiently manage your storage resources, SnapCenter on Azure NetApp Files provides a comprehensive solution for your data management needs.
Start exploring the power of SnapCenter on Azure NetApp Files today and unlock the potential of simplified data management in the cloud
Additional References:
Guide to Download and Avail Support for SnapCenter on ANF
Protecting Virtual machines on Azure VMware Service with ANF
Remember, if you have any feedback, feel free to reach out to our experts at ng-snapcenter-feedback@netapp.com.