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Enterprise applications

Overview

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Microsoft Windows Server is an enterprise-class operating system (OS) that covers networking, security, virtualization, private cloud, hybrid cloud, virtual desktop infrastructure, access protection, information protection, web services, application platform infrastructure, and much more.

Note This documentation replaces previously published technical reports TR-4568: NetApp Deployment Guidelines and Storage Best Practices for Windows Server
NetApp ONTAP® management software runs on NetApp storage controllers. It is available in multiple formats.
  • A unified architecture supporting file, object, and block protocols. This enables the storage controllers to act as both NAS and SAN devices as well as object stores

  • An All SAN Array (ASA) that focuses only on block protocols and optimizes I/O resume times (IORT) by adding symmetric active-active multipathing for connect hosts

  • A software defined unified architecture

    • ONTAP Select running on VMware vSphere or KVM

    • Cloud Volumes ONTAP running as a cloud native instance

  • First party offerings from hyperscale cloud providers

    • Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP

    • Azure NetApp Files

    • Google Cloud NetApp Volumes

ONTAP provides NetApp storage efficiency features such as NetApp Snapshot® technology, cloning, deduplication, thin provisioning, thin replication, compression, virtual storage tiering, and much more with enhanced performance and efficiency.

Together, Windows Server and ONTAP can operate in large environments and bring immense value to data center consolidation and private or hybrid cloud deployments. This combination also provides nondisruptive workloads efficiently and supports seamless scalability.

Intended audience

This document is intended for system and storage architects who design NetApp storage solutions for the Windows Server.

We make the following assumptions in this document:

For a complete, regularly updated matrix of tested and supported SAN and NAS configurations, see the Interoperability Matrix Tool (IMT) on the NetApp Support site. With the IMT, you can determine the exact product and feature versions that are supported for your specific environment. The NetApp IMT defines the product components and versions that are compatible with NetApp supported configurations. Specific results depend on each customer's installation in accordance with published specifications.