Ashish Dhawan, the Senior Vice President, General Manager, and Chief Revenue Officer of the Cloud Business Unit at NetApp, shared the driving forces behind enterprise cloud adoption and the role of partnerships and multi-cloud approaches.
The Reasons For Movement
The primary motivators for enterprise cloud adoption are innovation speed, optimal IT infrastructure, and elasticity.
“Cloud adoption in our customers is largely to do with our customers’ need to innovate faster. They also need to make sure that they have a very optimal IT infrastructure that is elastic” Dhawan explained.
Moving workloads to the cloud allows companies to command resources like compute, storage, and networking at will, thus fostering an environment where innovation can thrive.
“Cloud computing really helps them achieve all these at one goal” said Dhawan, further expanding on the multifaceted advantages of cloud technology.
Addressing historical apprehensions about migrating to the cloud, Dhawan noted a significant change in mindset over the years.
“A few years ago, migrating to the cloud seemed like a difficult proposition” he said.
However, NetAppโs cloud storage solutions, built in collaboration with major hyperscalers like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, who have simplified the migration process and to alleviate thoughts of apprehension.
Dhawan elaborated on how these first-party services integrate seamlessly into the hyperscalers’ operations, thereby easing the migration of critical workloads.
“Migrations need not be difficult because we offer technology very akin to what they’re used to on-prem, but delivered in a first-party format” he added.
The Role of Partnerships and Multi-Cloud Strategies
The weight of importance towards partnerships with hyperscalers and the multi-cloud approach for enterprises.
“Customers are choosing the right cloud for the right purpose,” he explained.
NetApp has strategically developed first-party cloud storage services with each of the hyperscalers, ensuring that customers can easily migrate and leverage their data.
“We are the only company that has these services with each of the hyperscalers,” Dhawan stated.
He cited examples such as Amazon FSx for AWS, Google Cloud NetApp Volumes, and Azure NetApp Files, presenting how these services foster agility and enable enterprises to derive insights from their data through AI and Gen AI services.
Despite the clear benefits, Dhawan acknowledged the challenges companies face when adopting a cloud-first approach,
“The biggest challenge that any customer faces is top-down alignment” he remarked.
Ensuring that the senior management and various departments within a company are in sync is easier for a successful cloud strategy.
Another significant challenge is acquiring the necessary skill sets. We as an industry often overlook the importance of training, certification, and ongoing support to bridge this gap.
“We try to provide the level of training, certification, and ongoing support for them to make sure that skillsets never remain an issue” he affirmed.
Dhawan pointed out that overcoming resistance often requires a cultural overhaul.
“Our technology almost always means a little bit of a cultural overhaul” he said, stressing the need to earn the trust of senior leadership and propagate this trust throughout the company.
The shift from owning assets to relying on cloud services, reiterating that this shift requires a change in mindset.
“We focus more on their customer success, and that’s a huge change in mindset that we try and help them understand” Dhawan added.
