eBook

A Guide to File Services

in the Cloud
1 NetApp A Guide to File Services in the Cloud
 Executive Summary

File shares support some of the most important workloads that

enterprise businesses rely on, and the resources of the public cloud
have created interesting new possibilities. Every major public cloud
provider now offers its own shared file service, each with its own
target workloads and considerations. But not every enterprise will
find what they’re looking for in a fully-managed, all-cloud service.

How can you find out what is the best option for you? In this guide
to file services in the cloud we’ll give you a short introduction into
shared file storage technologies, including all of the challenges of
running a file service in the cloud. We’ll profile each of the major file
service offerings available today, including Amazon EFS and FSx,
Azure Files, GCP’s Cloud Filestore, and more. We’ll also give you a
full view of what NetApp’s Cloud Volumes ONTAP offers file users,
spotlighting important performance, availability, and data protection
features, examples for how to get started, and some case studies of
enterprise businesses that rely on Cloud Volumes ONTAP to meet all
their file service requirements.

2 NetApp A Guide to File Services in the Cloud

Table of Contents
Executive Summary.......................................................................................................................................... 2

Table of Content.............................................................................................................................................3-4

Introduction to File Services in the Cloud............................................................................................... 5

What is File Storage?................................................................................................................................. 5

Two Types of File Formats to Consider.............................................................................................. 5

What is SMB?......................................................................................................................................... 5

What is NFS?.......................................................................................................................................... 5

Challenges of File Services in the Cloud.................................................................................................. 6

File Services in the Cloud Today.................................................................................................................. 8

AWS EFS (for NFS).................................................................................................................................... 8

AWS FSx for Windows File Server (for SMB / CIFS).................................................................... 9

Azure Files................................................................................................................................................... 10

GCP: Cloud Filestore..................................................................................................................................11

IBM SoftLayer File Storage.....................................................................................................................12

Open-Source Solutions............................................................................................................................13

GlusterFS.................................................................................................................................................13

Avere vFXT.............................................................................................................................................13

3 NetApp A Guide to File Services in the Cloud

Table of Contents
Cloud Volumes ONTAP File Service Features.......................................................................................14

1. High Availability......................................................................................................................................15

2. File Access................................................................................................................................................15

3. Data Protection......................................................................................................................................16

4. Performance............................................................................................................................................17

5. Backup and Archiving.........................................................................................................................17

6. Space Efficiencies.................................................................................................................................18

7. Scalability and Agility...........................................................................................................................19

8. Automation and Management.........................................................................................................19

9. Cloud Migration......................................................................................................................................19

10. Data Replication................................................................................................................................. 20

11. Security.....................................................................................................................................................21

12. Hybrid and Multicloud........................................................................................................................21

13. Kubernetes Integration.....................................................................................................................22

Comparison Table............................................................................................................................................23

How to Set Up SMB / CIFS and NFS File Service in Cloud Volumes ONTAP..........................24

Quick Start: Cloud Volumes ONTAP for Your SMB / CIFS File System...............................24

Quick Start: Cloud Volumes ONTAP for Your NFS File System Needs................................25

Case Studies and Benefits Summary......................................................................................................26

EidosMedia: Unlimited Scale for High Demand File Workloads.............................................26

Monash University: From Cloud-First to Cloud-Only.................................................................27

Cloud Volumes ONTAP Benefits...............................................................................................................28

Conclusion..........................................................................................................................................................29

4 NetApp A Guide to File Services in the Cloud

Introduction to File Services in the Cloud
What is File Storage?
Moving your file share services to the cloud gives you unlimited scalability, while at the same time, transparently addressing
concerns over high availability and resilience to system failure.
Where NFS and SMB / CIFS file shares allow a file system to be accessed concurrently by hundreds or thousands of client machines,
cloud file sharing services can also be used to support a wider range of use cases, such as media processing, off-site backup, home
directories, data analytics and more.

As can be expected, there are a number of things to consider when choosing cloud file sharing services. Each file share service may
be fully managed or require a certain amount of setup and will support different access protocols and provide different backup
facilities. Finding the best fit for your particular requirements usually necessitates a certain amount of research, proof of concept,
and trial and error.

Two Types of File Formats

to Consider
What is SMB?
SMB stands for Server Message Block. It is a network
protocol that allows shared file access. CIFS stands for
Common Internet File System. CIFS is an SMB dialect
protocol that was developed by Microsoft to access Window
files. In time, CIFS and SMB became two names for the same
thing. For reference, we will use the terms CIFS protocol
(the old name) and SMB protocol (the very old and now
new-again name) interchangeably.

What is NFS?
NFS stands for Network File System, a Linux-based protocol
that lets users access other files on different computers via
a network in the same way that the computer would access
its own locally-stored files.

5 NetApp A Guide to File Services in the Cloud

Challenges of File Services in the Cloud
What kind of challenges and requirements need to be considered when it comes to using shared file services in the cloud? In the
following section we’ll take a look at each of the considerations that users need to find solutions for when they choose a file service:

1 Availability 3 Data Protection

1 Availability
Shared file storage provides access to a There are several points to consider with
vast number of users and it needs to be data protection for file shares.
available on a constant basis. When using Snapshots are key to guaranteeing
2 Accessibility
the major cloud offerings, configuring the point-in-time recovery points for cases
file share’s availability is on the user. This where data is corrupted, infected, or
3 Data Protection requires complex manual configurations accidently deleted, and they should
for supporting automatic failover and easily and quickly be restored to an up-
failback, especially when it comes to to-date copy. Cloud provider snapshots
4 Performance using NAS storage. Many enterprise file load lazily, which means not all the data
share-based workloads require strict may be ready when you need it, and the
SLAs of minimal downtime (RTO<60 costs for creating the initial copy can
5 Backup & Archive seconds) and no data loss (RPO=0). In be high. Another challenge is related
those cases, any loss of data or downtime to application-aware snapshots. The
will be too costly—in terms of lost snapshot mechanism should be able
6
Storage Footprint revenue, reputation, customer churn, legal to guarantee consistent recovery, for
& Costs databases or any other application.
exposure, and more—to absorb.
Another aspect of data protection is
7 Scalability & Agility 2 Accessibility
disaster recovery (DR). The DR solution
needs to ensure reliable failover and
To meet the demands of both Linux/ failback processes, as well as automatic
8 API & Automation Unix and Windows workloads, a file share syncs to keep the secondary copy up to
solution should enable access with both date, and regular testing. All this needs
NFS and SMB / CIFS protocols and any to be done while maintaining the copy
9 Cloud Migration of those protocols various versions or at reasonable costs, as the DR copy is a
flavors. Using the major cloud providers, complete copy of the primary share.
there isn’t a single, native solution that is
10
Data Replication able to provide this multi-protocol access.
& Sync Configuring an in-house solution can
also be prohibitively expensive and time
11 Security consuming.

12 Multicloud & Hybrid

13
Kubernetes
Integration

6 NetApp A Guide to File Services in the Cloud

 4 Performance 7 Scalability and Agility 11 Security
Shared file services serve important Shared file storage capacity needs to be Sending sensitive data to the cloud and
workloads that require a high, consistent able to scale with the massive datasets having it accessible by vast numbers
performance and low levels of latency. enterprise file storage require. File storage of users requires that the data is
Data no matter where it is requested serves use cases that can see sudden, protected with encryption, efficient key
must be immediately usable. It is dramatic increases and decreases in management, and role-based access
important to have the ability to scale out usage. The ability to scale both up and restrictions.
or up on request, and to be able to move down to meet those demand peaks and
data between tiers non-disruptively, and down periods is key. 12 Multicloud and Hybrid
without causing performance issues.
The native cloud service providers each
In case of an uptick in usage, the file 8 API and Automation have their own attractive offerings for
service should be able to move to a more
File storage requires users be able to file usage, but not every enterprise will
performant tier and at a reasonable cost.
carry out complex tasks and workflows be willing to completely let go of their
such as managing volumes, snapshots, trusted on-prem data center or go
5 Backup & Archive all-in with just one cloud. Managing a
and clones, setting up replications, etc.
Preventing data loss requires a sufficient via automation and orchestration tools. file share between deployments in one
method for backing up file data. Data that or more clouds and an on-prem data
may need to be kept for longer periods 9 Cloud Migration center can be a challenge in terms of
or compliance purposes requires an data synchronization, management, cost
Working with a cloud-based file service
archiving solution for the files. Creating control, and more.
requires in many cases the ability to move
and restoring backups should not affect
file data between on-prem or other data
production-level performance. Backups 13 Kubernetes Integration
repositories without having to refactor
also need to be available for use at any
or re-architect your existing applications Kubernetes is the most popular way
time, consistent, and able to be restored
and processes (lift and shift approach) that developers can orchestrate their
easily. Restore granularity should also
which could otherwise be cost and time container usage in the cloud today.
be possible so that a single file can be
consumptive. However, unless containers are deployed
recovered without requiring the rest of
to the same pod, sharing data between
the volume or data set to be restored.
10 Data Replication containers or between Kubernetes
and Sync clusters can be challenging.
6 Storage Footprint
and Costs Users need to be able to replicate file NFS makes it much easier to attach
Since file storage is typically used to shares between various repositories and storage to pods and reduce the
support massive data sets such as media keep them synced for use cases such as administrative overhead of working
libraries or home directories, the overall DR, data collaboration, offline testing, with persistent storage. To do this, a file
storage footprint and costs can be a offline analytics, and more. The costs for solution needs to be able to work with a
considerable challenge even for the most data replication and sync, both in terms persistent volume provisioner. Resizing
established organizations. Huge cloud of storage and traffic costs, will need to NFS persistent volumes, mounting
bills can be a detriment to further scaling be considered, as massive amounts of persistent volumes as Read/Write Many,
or investment in new developments. data may require to be kept up to date creating separate storage classes for
between repositories. different mount parameters, protecting
data with instant snapshots, and other
requirements must also be supported.

7 NetApp A Guide to File Services in the Cloud

File Services in the Cloud Today
Solutions available in the market

AWS EFS (for NFS)

Amazon EFS provides a scalable and Direct Connect must be used to make system, this AWS EFS-to-EFS backup
highly-available solution for creating a connection to the share over a non- solution must be set up manually. As
cloud-based NFS file shares. The setup internet-based connection, as AWS VPN snapshots are not supported, these
process is very straightforward, allowing connections are not supported. Amazon EFS backups to the secondary
you to create a new file system through Each file system is billed according to the file system could potentially double
the wizard-based UI within minutes. amount of storage used each month. As storage usage, and therefore double
These file systems grow and shrink storage use is normally not static, and can Amazon cloud storage costs.
automatically as required, with file data vary within any month, this is calculated Another consideration is the relationship
redundantly distributed across multiple based on a more granular measure of between capacity and throughput
Availability Zones. Use of multiple nodes capacity used in hours, known as GB- performance. A system of burst credits
also helps to provide greater aggregate hours. A worked example can be found in is used to determine the highest level
throughput for data access. Amazon the AWS documentation. of performance a file system can be
EFS file systems are primarily meant for One of the main considerations when expected to achieve, which directly
access by Amazon EC2 and make use of moving to Amazon EFS is protecting relates to the size of the data being
security groups to act as a kind of firewall live data through a built-in backup or stored. Small, actively-used file systems
to manage network access. In order to snapshot mechanism. Though an AWS that use up all their allocated credits drop
use an EFS mount for access to the file Data Pipeline can be used to perform down to a base level of performance that
system from an on-premises server, AWS an AWS EFS backup to a secondary file may not be acceptable in all cases.

Benefits Considerations

• Very easy to set up. • Performance levels/IO for small systems.

• Fully-managed cloud service. • Support NFSv4+ only
• Horizontally scalable and multi-AZ availability. • No built-in backup or snapshot system; may
result in additional AWS EFS costs.

8 NetApp A Guide to File Services in the Cloud

AWS FSx for Windows File Server (for SMB / CIFS)
In late 2018, AWS finally addressed comes with a data migration capability backups of files on a daily basis, or they
the need for shared file support for for lifting and shifting existing workloads can be created by the user manually.
SMB / CIFS workloads with the release to the cloud with minimal effort. Since the snapshots are incremental,
of Amazon FSx. This fully-managed storage consumed for their retention will
file service is targeted at third-party A unique feature to Amazon FSx is that only be based on the changes made to
protocols, such as Windows Server and it enables throughput capacity to be the original data.
Lustre. Because it is built on Windows, set for individual volumes, regardless
Amazon FSx is able to fully integrate with of how large the volume may be. There To maintain availability in a multi-AZ
any Microsoft workload, such as Active is no fee associated with setting up the setup, Amazon FSx requires use of
Directory (AD), Windows NTFS, and service; charges are applied based on Distributed File System (DFS) replication,
Distributed File System (DFS). However, it the amount of throughput, storage, and which can be an additional cost factor
should be noted the AD is only accessible backup storage used per GB per month, as it essentially doubles the cost for the
via the native AWS directory system and respectively. Capacity for the service is service.
cannot be used without it. currently limited to 300 GB-64 TB.
Deployments on Amazon FSx can be
Unlike Amazon EFS, Amazon FSx also Security needs are met by Amazon FSx started through the use of the AWS
offers enterprise-grade performance and through the use of encryption for data CLI and AWS SDK developer tools
IO (2 GB/second throughput). This shared both in transit and at rest. When it comes directly, or through the easy-to-use AWS
storage service is also highly accessible, to data protection, unlike Amazon EFS, Management Console GUI.
providing concurrent access globally. Amazon FSx is equipped with a snapshot
As FSx targets enterprise users, it also feature. These snapshots can create

Benefits Considerations

• Easy to set up. • Daily incremental snapshots or manual.

• Fully-managed file service. • Multi-AZ availability through DFS.
• AD integration, and support for Windows • Availability limited to these AWS regions: US
NTFS and DFS. West: Oregon, US East: N. Virginia, US East:
Ohio, and Europe: Ireland.
• Possible weekly maintenance (and downtime)
• AWS directory service usage.
• Three costs: throughput, storage, and backup.
• 300 GB-64 TB capacity.

9 NetApp A Guide to File Services in the Cloud

Azure Files
Azure Files enables users to create SMB However, this can also be achieved by this way to provide uniform access in
v3.0 file shares in the Microsoft cloud, in using the REST interface over HTTPS. different regional areas. Azure Files Share
a similar way to Amazon EFS. Creating Azure File Sync allows Azure Files to Snapshots is another feature that allows
a new file share is a very straightforward be fully integrated with on-premises for read-only snapshots to be created of a
procedure through the UI and can also systems. By running the Azure File Sync file share for Azure files backup purposes.
be performed through Powershell or the agent on an on-premises Windows Azure Files cost is split into two levels:
Azure CLI. Server machine, Azure Files data can be The Azure storage cost of the share itself
Though the SMB protocol is usually used cached locally for faster access, with all and access costs, as an example for listing
with Microsoft Windows, these shares can writes transparently synchronized back to the contents of a directory or accessing
also be mounted for reading and writing Azure. Azure File Sync ensures resiliency a file. Additional Azure files costs would
on Linux and MacOS systems. Support of your data and end-to-end integration also be incurred for using features such as
for the newer version of SMB enables with Geo-Redundant Storage (GRS). Azure File Sync.
features such as encryption in transit. Multiple servers can be configured in

Benefits Considerations

• Very quick to get started • Size limited to 5 TB

• Fully-managed solution • No built-in support for NFS
• File Sync and File Share Snapshots • Integration with Microsoft Azure AD for SMB
share authentication is in preview and can
be implemented only by using Azure AD
Domain Services.

10 NetApp A Guide to File Services in the Cloud

GCP: Cloud Filestore
On GCP, Cloud Filestore provides a fully- of 63.9 TB. An instance of Cloud Filestore service option stands at a solid 99.9%.
managed, high performance file system is available in only one GCP zone and
for NFS. Users have two performance does not include any way to failover It should be noted that this service is still
options available to best match their if the zone where it resides becomes in a beta release, which may be a factor
workload: Standard with 5,000 IOPS, and unavailable. That means, should there be to consider when looking to deploy an
Premium with a max of 30,000 IOPS. an outage, users can expect downtime. enterprise-level workload. Full integration
Backups would need to be performed with other GCP cloud services may make
When it comes to the size of the file by the user, as Cloud Filestore has no it attractive to users who are already in
share, Cloud Filestore requires a minimum snapshot feature currently. However, that cloud.
size of 1 TB with a maximum size ceiling average availability for users on either

Benefits Considerations

• Managed service by GCP • Size limited to 63.9 TB

• Ready-to-use NFSv3-based NAS storage in the • Backup facility is completely manual
cloud • Beta release, no guaranteed SLAs
• Standard and Premium performance options

11 NetApp A Guide to File Services in the Cloud

IBM SoftLayer File Storage
IBM Cloud’s File Storage offers highly manually enter the level of performance Pricing is dependent on the level of IOPS
available NFS file share services with they need. per GB required. At the low end this can
a sophisticated feature set. Setup is Storage management features include be very cost effective, however, at the
performed through the platform’s space efficient snapshots, data replication opposite end of the spectrum, it can be
web-based UI, which allows for disk and even volume cloning, in order to the most expensive option within this
performance to be specified in terms of rapidly create writable copies of existing series. Another thing to note is the limit of
IOPS per GB. Users can choose between shares. Data is also encrypted at rest storage capacity; currently, only shares of
the Endurance Tier, selecting one of to ensure information security. These between 20GB and 12TB are supported.
three fixed levels of included IOPS, and features, however, are not currently
the Performance Tier, where they can available in all regions.

Benefits Considerations

• Highly-available platform for NFS file shares • Storage management features not currently
• Ability to tune performance based on available in all regions
requirements • Limits on storage capacity means the
• Sophisticated storage management features platform may not be suitable for all use cases

12 NetApp A Guide to File Services in the Cloud

Open-Source Solutions
Not every solution for file storage in dispersed, and a variety of combinations Avere vFXT
the cloud is fully-managed. There is of those. The filesystem also supports
Another open-source option for cloud file
the option of configuring your own file Google Cloud Platform backups through
service is Avere vFXT, which can act as
service based on open-source technology snapshots, as well as snapshot clones,
a caching proxy on top of Google Cloud
that can take advantage of public cloud and can serve out data over NFS, SMB,
Storage, AWS, or Azure. Clients are able
storage and compute. and even iSCSI through the use of
to access data over NFS and CIFS, leaving
different drivers and add-ons.
GlusterFS the filer to manage the actual persistence
As setting up the GlusterFS open source
One such solution is GlusterFS. GlusterFS to Google’s object store in the back end.
platform is on the end-user, this is not
can be used to distribute a file share Avere virtual appliances can be clustered
a solution for the faint-hearted. You’ll
across multiple virtual and physical and offer many advanced features, such
be expected to roll up your sleeves in
machines in order to provide scalability as integrating with your on-premises
order to set the system up and resolve
and resilience against failure. Though Avere NAS devices to create a global
any issues that may arise on your own. It
GlusterFS is open source, commercial namespace. This solution is more suitable
should also be noted that this solution is
support is available from Red Hat. for high-end systems, as is reflected by
not specific to any cloud, meaning it can
Gluster storage supports a wide range the pricing.
be deployed on AWS, Azure, or GCP.
of different storage configurations,
including distributed, striped, replicated,

Benefits Considerations

• Variety of solutions available • Setup, scripting, domain expertise,

• Support for both NFS and CIFS and administration of GlusterFS may be
very technical
• GlusterFS support for snapshot backups
and clones • Avere vFXT may be out of scope for most
users’ requirements

13 NetApp A Guide to File Services in the Cloud

Cloud Volumes ONTAP File
Service Features
Cloud Volumes ONTAP is a comprehensive solution for file-based cloud storage management that builds on NetApp’s expertise
providing solutions for on-premises SAN and NAS storage. The main benefits as a file share service include:

• Unified storage solution for all versions of NFS, CIFS and iSCSI in the cloud with multiprotocol access
• Powerful storage efficiencies to reduce your storage footprint and costs
• A wide range of storage management capabilities
• Extremely efficient replication technology on a block level
• Available for use with AWS and Azure

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP Architecture

In the next section we will detail each of the features that make Cloud Volumes ONTAP an optimal choice for file services in the cloud.

14 NetApp A Guide to File Services in the Cloud

 1 High Availability
In its high availability configuration, Cloud Volumes ONTAP creates a
redundant environment composed of two nodes that may be provisioned to
support multi-region deployment. This ensures that if one instance fails, the
workload will immediately failover to the other. With this configuration in place
you can ensure that, in a failure scenario, business continuity will be maintained
with no data loss (RPO=0), minimal recovery time (RTO < 60 secs), and a
seamless failover to the secondary node and failback to the primary when the
failure is resolved. This feature also ensures that testing, updates, and planned
maintenance will be completely nondisruptive.

Learn more about High Availability and File Services in the Cloud.

2 File Access
Cloud Volumes ONTAP is able to support all versions of NFS and SMB / CIFS
file shares in the cloud or on-premises. This avoids any of the limitations
that come from dealing with file services that target only a specific type of
protocol, which gives you more flexibility to manage your files. This includes
full Active Directory integration, and the ability to keep your existing domain
credentials and group memberships.

Multi-Protocol-Access allows users to both NFS and SMB / CIFS protocol

access to the same file and allows files to be shared between Linux and
Windows clients in the cloud seamlessly.

To find out more about how to configure file access for SMB / CIFS and NFS
in Cloud Volumes ONTAP, see the step-by-step instructions in How to Set Up
SMB / CIFS and NFS File Service in Cloud Volumes ONTAP section below.

15 NetApp A Guide to File Services in the Cloud

 3 Data Protection
Cloud Volumes ONTAP protects your file data with NetApp Snapshots™. These
are instantly-created snapshot copies of your data no matter how large the
data set, that are extremely space efficient. Making use of NetApp’s WAFL®
technology, a system of pointers makes it possible to update each successive
snapshot so that only the delta data is copied.

Learn more about Cloud Volumes ONTAP Snapshots.

Disaster recovery is as important for file-based workloads as it is with any

critical, customer-facing use case. NetApp’s SnapMirror® data replication
technology leverages ONTAP Snapshots to manage the transfer of data from
the primary data set to the DR copy. SnapMirror will copy the entire dataset
to the DR instance only once, and then keeps the DR copy in sync by only
updating the data that changes at the primary site. This method of syncing
only the delta data is very cost effective.

Learn more about Cloud Volumes ONTAP Disaster Recovery Solution.

ONTAP Snapshots are also the basis of Cloud Volumes ONTAP’s flexible data
cloning technology, FlexClone®. FlexClone creates data clones that are writable
snapshots of your dataset, with zero capacity penalty and almost zero time
to create. Clone copies can be used for a number of purposes, but chiefly in
the DevOps use case, for testing, where they will have no impact on your file
services-based workloads’ normal operations.

Learn more about benefits of using data cloning with Cloud Volumes ONTAP.

16 NetApp A Guide to File Services in the Cloud

 4 Performance 5 Backup and Archiving
What gives Cloud Volumes ONTAP Cloud Volumes ONTAP uses SnapVault® Read/write copies can also be used to
its performance edge is NetApp’s to easily create secondary systems instantly restore volumes. This restoration
Write Anywhere File Layout (WAFL) from or to both on-prem and cloud takes place instantly, first by creating
technology. Using WAFL, Cloud Volumes ONTAP storage endpoints. SnapVault a snapshot and then a clone of the
ONTAP is able to grow file system size leverages snapshots in a similar way snapshot, providing you with a read/write
rapidly along with support for enormous that SnapMirror does, as the basis of copy ready for use.
RAID arrays. This technology was a block-level transport mechanism for
specifically designed by NetApp for use copying data incrementally and efficiently In CIFS deployments, Cloud Volumes
in its storage systems and is not available between storage environments. ONTAP’s snapshots, enabling users to see
through other cloud file service options. SnapVault allows archival data from their backups using the native Windows
multiple source storage systems to be option to restore previous versions,
Cloud Volumes ONTAP HA benefits sent to a single destination system with reducing backup admin’s work.
from its dual node configuration which up to 1023 snapshots that can be stored
allows for faster reads. Cloud Volumes per volume. Learn more about Backup and Archiving
ONTAP supports caching for writes which with Cloud Volumes ONTAP.
reduces latency. Conventional NDMP (Network Data
And it also has management flexibility Management Protocol) backup and
that enables moving data volumes restoration can be slow, even when
between different storage tiers non- required to recover a single file out of
disruptively. This ensures that while a repository. Cloud Volumes ONTAP
optimizing storage use, performance will can restore a volume or a single file, as
not degrade. needed.

17 NetApp A Guide to File Services in the Cloud

 6 Space Efficiencies
One of the added values Cloud Volumes Cloud provides when it comes to cloud-based file share services is the full set of storage-
efficiency features that make it capable of decreasing storage footprint and costs.

These space-efficiency technologies—which include thin provisioning, data compaction, compression, and deduplication as well as
data tiering—are core to the ONTAP system. These cost-savings can be examined using NetApp’s Azure calculator and
AWS calculator.

Storage Tiering Deduplication Compression

Automatically shift infrequently-used Reduces storage by using pointers to Compresses data so it consumes the
data to inexpensive block storage in replace duplicate storage blocks. minimum space possible.
Amazon S3 or Azure Blob.

Thin Provisioning Compaction

Allocates storage only when it is required, Combine blocks that are not completely
so that you don’t provision and pay more filled, removing the unused space that
than you use. otherwise would have been left empty.

Learn more about how to lower cloud storage costs with Cloud Volumes ONTAP storage efficiencies.

18 NetApp A Guide to File Services in the Cloud

 7 Scalability and Agility
Cloud Volumes ONTAP comes with several different licensing options: Explore, Standard, Premium, and an option to design your
own license. As well as higher rates of performance, each of these performance classes comes with different amounts of storage. For
enterprise-grade file shares, users will most likely require Premium of BYOL.

Explore Standard Premium

Ideal for smaller workloads. This option With a greater ability to scale, the Supports up to 368TB. This option is
provides up to 2 TB of underlying AWS Standard option provides up to 10 TB best for the most demanding workloads,
or Azure storage. of underlying AWS or Azure storage. such as enterprise-level file service.

An additional option is the Bring Your Own License (BYOL) model. With a BYOL license, the NetApp cloud architect team will help
define the exact resources and performance rate that your workloads require, with up to 368 TB storage.

Cloud Volumes ONTAP is fully capable of changing instance types, creating volume aggregates using different disk types,
dynamically resizing or expanding volumes, moving infrequently-used data automatically between storage tiers, leveraging data
clones to create new cost-effective volumes, and, as we’ll see below, replicating data between systems, making sure that files are
synced no matter how many repositories need to be in use to meet demand spikes. As all these tools are accessible via API calls,
they can be completely developer driven.

8 Automation and Management

OnCommand® Cloud Manager is used to deploy and manage Cloud Volumes ONTAP instances. Cloud Manager uses a simple
wizard-based interface to walk you through the set up and automation of provisioning volumes and disk aggregates, setting up new
storage systems, creating snapshot schedules, provisioning clone environments, and creating new file shares.

Every Cloud Manager function can also be carried out using a RESTful API and is integrated with popular automation tools such as
Jenkins, Ansible, OpenStack, and more, all of which comes in handy for DevOps and other workflows.

Learn more about Cloud Manager’s capabilities here and about the integration with automation tools at The Pub, NetApp’s
developer resource.

9 Cloud Migration
Getting to the cloud for shared file storage is one of the first hurdles that many large enterprises using legacy systems need to solve.
For those companies that are already using NetApp, SnapMirror will offer an easy way to replicate your files from the on-premises
system to the cloud, either on AWS or Azure. SnapMirror will effortlessly shift file data to the cloud with no need to rewrite any
of the existing application (the “lift and shift” approach). Transfer time and costs for the migration will benefit from the powerful
storage efficiencies that NetApp offers, making it less expensive and faster to get to the cloud.

For users whose data resides in other format, NetApp Cloud Sync can migrate any kind of file data, or object, no matter where it is:
on-premises NFS or CIFS file shares, Amazon S3 object format, Amazon EFS, Azure Blob, GCP Storage, IBM Cloud Object Storage,
or NetApp StorageGRID®.

19 NetApp A Guide to File Services in the Cloud

10 Data Replication
Keeping file shares synchronized between different regions, clouds, or on-prem systems requires powerful data replication tools. In
this case, Cloud Volumes ONTAP use SnapMirror once again.

Users who are already using NetApp storage in their data center can replicate and synchronize data between on-premises and the
cloud, cloud regions, or cloud to cloud. All this can be done keeping the data synchronized through incremental updates. The range
of functionality provided by SnapMirror, and its integration with other Cloud Volumes ONTAP features, make it a flexible and very
powerful data replication solution.
Learn more about NetApp SnapMirror Data Replication in the Cloud.

Replication relationships between Cloud Volumes ONTAP instances on AWS, Azure, and on-prem.

20 NetApp A Guide to File Services in the Cloud

11 Security
Cloud Volumes ONTAP provides several security features that can help secure your files:

• Data Encryption: All data at rest is fully encrypted. • Ransomware protection: FPolicy file screening and
Data in transit is encrypted when using SMB3+/NFS4.1+ blocking enables you to filter and get alerts about
protocols. suspicious file extensions.
• VPC/VNet Deployment: By deploying within your VPC/ • FPolicy: FPolicy auditing option will record any file
VNet you can make sure that your data is always within activity in an external system to support visibility into
your control. data usage patterns and meet compliance, privacy, and
• User Management: Users can be assigned different security requirements.
roles in Cloud Manager to define their authorization and • Vscan: Anti-virus integration is possible with the use of
access levels: Cloud Manager Admin, Tenant Admin, and Vscan.
Working Environment Admin. • Access permissions: Cloud Volumes ONTAP supports
• WORM (Write Once Read Many) Storage: WORM all native NTFS/EXT permission levels, as well as share/
storage is supported leveraging NetApp SnapLock® export permissions, making sure that access is granted
technology for data that is required to be kept in an to authorized users only.
immutable, undeletable form, for legal and compliance • Multitenancy: Create and manage separate tenancies
purposes. and Tenant Admins via Cloud Manager.

12 Hybrid and Multicloud

Cloud Volumes ONTAP leverages OnCommand® Cloud
Manager for orchestrating the use of file shares in hybrid as
well as multicloud architectures. This gives users the ability to:

• Support both AWS and Azure, as well as private cloud

and on-prem deployments.
• Support inter-ONTAP features such as provisioning
storage from the cloud provider, data discovery, data
replication and sync, automation and orchestration of
workflows, etc. across all environments seamlessly
• Single-pane view and control via the Cloud Manager for
all storage components.
• A way to avoid cloud vendor lock-in.

Learn more about how hybrid and multicloud architectures

are supported in Cloud Volumes ONTAP.

21 NetApp A Guide to File Services in the Cloud

13 Kubernetes Integration
Using NFS for shared storage can be an attractive option because users won’t
lose their ephemeral storage, it is easier to manage, protect, and more flexible
than other storage formats, such as iSCSI. With NetApp Trident and Cloud
Volumes ONTAP you can deploy and manage NFS for Kubernetes clusters in
the cloud. Trident is also capable of handling iSCSI.

NetApp Trident is a storage provisioner for Kubernetes that allows users

to take advantage of NetApp storage services, both on-premises and in
the cloud. It is a fully-supported, open-source solution that allows native
Kubernetes manifests to be used to provision persistent volumes, which is
taken care of by Cloud Volumes ONTAP.

Using Trident as your Kubernetes NFS provisioner gives you some additional
benefits that you won’t get with other provisioners, such as the ability to
dynamically resize NFS persistent volumes. Combining that with Cloud
Volumes ONTAP’s powerful data storage features, such as storage efficiencies,
volume cloning, and data protection, makes for an enterprise solution for
Kubernetes and NFS.

Cloud Manager is fully integrated with Trident and has the ability to auto-install
Trident on the user’s Kubernetes cluster and configure Cloud Volumes ONTAP
as a storage class in Kubernetes.

Learn more about using Cloud Volumes ONTAP for Kubernetes Persistent
Volumes.

22 NetApp A Guide to File Services in the Cloud

Comparison Table
Comply
This chart shows how each of the file services solutions covered in this article address Partially comply
the challenges in the categories discussed above. Doesn’t comply

Cloud Volumes GCP Cloud IBM SoftLayer

Amazon FSx Amazon EFS Azure Files GlusterFS Avere vFXT
ONTAP Filestore File Storage

High
Dual node,
Availability
mult-AZ and Single -AZ.
region Multi by DFS Multi-AZ only With GRS User configured User configured

File Access
CIFS / SMB / CIFS / SMB / CIFS / SMB /
NFS CIFS / SMB NFS CIFS / SMB NFSv3 NFS NFS NFS

Data Protection
User configured User configured

Performance
User configured User configured

Backup &
Archiving
User configured User configured

Space
Efficiencies

Scalability and
Agility
368TB Storage limits Storage limits Storage limits Storage limits Storage limits

Automation &
Management
User configured User configured

Cloud Migration
Block level

Data
Replication
Block level User configured User configured

Security
User configured User configured

Hybrid or
Multicloud
Both Hybrid only Hybrid only Hybrid only Hybrid only Hybrid only Both Both

Kubernetes Through exter-

User configured User configured
Integration nal provisioner
only

23 NetApp A Guide to File Services in the Cloud

 How to Set Up SMB/CIFS
and NFS File Service in
Cloud Volumes ONTAP
This short and quick guide will help you get going with your SMB / CIFS and NFS
service on Cloud Volumes ONTAP for
cloud file sharing.

Creating a new file share for Windows on a Cloud Volumes ONTAP system is very
straight forward, and it begins with the Cloud Manager. Cloud Manager is your
one-stop shop for deploying all the necessary cloud resources for your enterprise
data management systems, whether you’re using Cloud Volumes ONTAP with
Azure, AWS, or both. It’s also where you can discover your on-premises systems
so you can use the drag-and-drop capabilities to replicate data to or from the
cloud with ease.
For guidance on installing Cloud Manager in your cloud account, please take a
look at these instructional videos:
• Getting Started in AWS
• Getting Started in Azure

Quick Start: Cloud Volumes ONTAP for

Your SMB / CIFS File System
After you’ve installed Cloud Manager and used it to deploy a Cloud Volumes
ONTAP system, it’s time to get CIFS or SMB file system running. When creating
the volume using Cloud Manager, choose CIFS in the Protocol section. It doesn’t
matter if you do this when setting up Cloud Volumes ONTAP or when you’re
adding your first CIFS volume later on; in either case you will get a dialog that
looks like this:

24 NetApp A Guide to File Services in the Cloud

When adding your first CIFS volume to the system, the next dialog will be a
“CIFS Setup” dialog:

Here you can either do an Active Directory (AD) setup or a Workgroup setup.
If you are doing an AD setup, remember to specify a DNS server which knows
about your AD servers. The common, easy way to do this is to let AD provide the
DNS. If an AD server provides DNS, it will have the right records.

You should now have your first CIFS volume. It can support SMB2, SMB3 and
SMB3.1, but SMB1 is disabled for security reasons. You will also be able to use
NTFS ACLs on your files.

Quick Start: Cloud Volumes ONTAP for

Your NFS File System Needs
When creating the volume using Cloud Manager, choose NFS in the Protocol
section. As above, it doesn’t matter if you do this when setting up Cloud Volumes
ONTAP or if you are adding your first NFS volume at a later date.

When creating a new NFS export, by default it will be made available to all
hosts sharing the same subnet as your Cloud Volumes ONTAP system. You
can optionally change the access permissions to a specific host, IP address, IP
address range, or restrict all access.

Once your new NFS volume has been created, you can look at its information on
mount command guidance in Cloud Manager.

25 NetApp A Guide to File Services in the Cloud

Case Studies

EidosMedia: Unlimited Scale for High Demand File Workloads

A software house providing content The Wall Street Journal, and The New up to meet huge demand spikes for
creation and delivery to more than 70 York Times. By using Cloud Volumes heavy media files, and increased their
groups, 200 websites, 600 newspapers, ONTAP as for their file service workloads, production speed to unveil important
and 30,000 users across 5 continents. EidosMedia is able to seamlessly move new features, faster.
Customers include The Washington Post, workloads to and from the cloud, scale

Breaking news can’t wait. News moves fast and NetApp allows us to keep
ahead of it. Cloud Volumes ONTAP is every storage application guy’s dream.
It’s crazy how we can deploy storage in a matter of minutes!
Lorenzo Donina, Lead Infrastructure Engineer, EidosMedia, UK

Challenges Solution

• Improve content delivery with • Cloud Volumes ONTAP HA and multi-site

simultaneous publishing to multiple DR on AWS
destinations worldwide
• Accelerate development of new features
• Migrate to a SaaS model
• Hybrid cloud environment agility
• High availability with zero data loss and
no downtime

Read more about how EidosMedia leverages file services with Cloud Volumes ONTAP in the full case study.

26 NetApp A Guide to File Services in the Cloud

Monash University: From Cloud-First to Cloud-Only
Monash University is the largest university strategy and was faced with the task of with 1-click full-stack provisioning. They
in Australia, educating 80,000+ migrating 3,500 workloads to the cloud ended up reducing their AWS storage
students on four different continents and within a 12-month period. spend by more than 25% and soon
ranks in the top 1% of universities across realized the benefits of spinning up
Using Cloud Volumes ONTAP’s lift & shift
the globe. and tearing down new environments in
and data replication features and Cloud
minutes rather than months as well as
Monash University had made the Manager’s intuitive interface, they were
retaining data indefinitely.
strategic decision to move to a cloud-only able to transition to the cloud seamlessly

Cloud Volumes ONTAP allowed us to transition to the cloud seamlessly. It

enabled us to easily migrate our data and bring the benefits of our onsite
NetApp data management and data protection to AWS.
Brock Cremer, Infrastructure Services Delivery Manager, Monash University

Challenges Solution

• Move from a cloud-first to a • Cloud Volumes ONTAP to optimize storage

cloud-only strategy. costs and enhance manageability in the
• Adopt a multi-cloud model with AWS public cloud.
and Azure.
• Migrate 3,500 workloads to the cloud
in 12 months.

To find out more about Monash’s digital transformation read the full case study here.

27 NetApp A Guide to File Services in the Cloud

Cloud Volumes ONTAP Benefits Summary
Accessibility Reduced Costs
Serves NFS and SMB file shares Consume between 50% to 70% less storage with storage
efficiencies, and additional major savings with data tiering,
Shared file access
and zero-capacity snapshots and clones.
Use across Windows and Unix/Linux Operating Systems
Simple Cloud Onboarding
Complete integration
Move all your data to the cloud leveraging SnapMirror
Keep current file directory metadata, domain credentials,
(NetApp users) or Cloud Sync (agnostic).
access, authentication, group memberships
Multicloud and Hybrid Architectures
High performance
Manage data movement and sync, to and from on-premises
IOPS and throughput for the most demanding workloads
and public cloud deployments.
Business Continuity
Security
Failover and failback with RTO < 60 seconds, RPO=0 using
Ensure files are safe with data-at-rest encryption and cloud
the High Availability configuration.
WORM storage.
Data Protection
Automation & Orchestration
Prevent data loss with efficient data snapshots and DR
Plan, schedule, and integration via RESTful APIs or Cloud
processes.
Manager.

28 NetApp A Guide to File Services in the Cloud

Conclusion
The cloud is transforming the way that file storage works. Enterprise businesses can leverage
the fully-managed file services offered by the cloud providers, or may opt to build in-house file
systems based on open-source technology which require an extensive amount of technical skill
and maintenance to use.
Cloud Volumes ONTAP offers something between these two options: a flexible, fast, and scalable
file service solution that works out of the box for enterprise level deployments on AWS, Azure,
or both.
To get started using Cloud Volumes ONTAP, sign up for a free 30-day trial today.

29 NetApp A Guide to File Services in the Cloud

Refer to the Interoperability Matrix Tool (IMT) on the NetApp Support site to validate that the exact product and feature versions described in this
document are supported for your specific environment. The NetApp IMT defines the product components and versions that can be used to construct
configurations that are supported by NetApp. Specific results depend on each customer’s installation in accordance with published specifications.

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30 NetApp A Guide to File Services in the Cloud