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Supercharge Cloud Performance: Why Azure NetApp Files Is a Game Changer for the Energy Sector

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September 9, 2019

Topics: Azure NetApp Files 3 minute read

In today’s race to create clean and efficient energy, HPC on Azure NetApp Files paves the way for companies to increase efficiency and cloud performance while lowering costs.  

The Situation: A Leap of Faith to the Cloud

Dan’s boss took a huge leap of faith when she decided it was time to make the move from on-premises to the public cloud. She was concerned that the cloud wouldn’t offer the same smooth performance and high availability as their existing on-premises setup, and so she’d been hesitant to ditch the data center.

Dan works at a global energy company. He’s a Cloud Architect. Dan’s job requires him to oversee the migration of their Petrel geological and reservoir modeling software to the public cloud without compromising the performance of their current HPE 3PAR storage setup. The task of migrating to the cloud can be long and costly if done incorrectly; as the adage goes, time and money are two precious commodities. Dan was no exception: Indeed, he had limited time and money to orchestrate an organization-wide move to the cloud. 

Azure NetApp Files to the Rescue

Everywhere he looked, Dan came up short. He just couldn’t find a product that offered the necessary performance, at the right price point, without service interruptions. Dan searched and searched, investigating an assortment of cloud solutions. He received quotes, trialed trials, attended an endless stream of demonstrations. But both Dan and his boss were left unsatisfied by all these options, which promised good storage, but poor output. It seemed like a hopeless train of caveats and catches. 

But in his search, Dan came across Azure NetApp Files, a service that promised performance surpassing that of his company's on-premises environment. Because Azure and NetApp® have formed a strategic partnership, NetApp’s data management capabilities are packaged in an Azure-native service. Really, that just means it’s easier to make a smooth transition to Azure and to access a collection of capabilities that simplify file migration and system management. 

The Numbers Count: Absolute Best Cloud Performance

Dan’s company is using complex software that requires high throughput, reliability, and access. The energy sector is in flux, with constant demand for eco-friendly technologies and processes; researchers, engineers, and architects in this sector need access to up-to-the-minute information, making data sync crucial. And extremely high performance is the key to the kingdom for geological and reservoir modeling in the energy sector because of its use of sophisticated software.

The switch to ANF transformed the company’s capabilities. And Dan received more praise than he’d expected. His boss was no longer losing sleep over the switch to cloud storage. On the contrary, after their cloud migration, the energy company registered a 6.5x performance increase for their Petrel applications alone, relative to their HPE 3Par. Dan and his team investigated the root cause of the gain: 90% of their performance improvement could be traced to ANF, with only 10% due to faster compute. 

The public cloud was a game changer for Dan’s company. Azure NetApp Files challenged their long-held belief—fear, really— that the cloud couldn’t outperform on-premises. It showed that the grass might actually, in this case, be a little greener on the other side. 

Want to Be a Cloud Game Changer?

Register for Azure NetApp Files, see what the excitement is about, and start preparing your cloud-first announcement.

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Carl Agers III

Cloud Data Services

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