NetApp Snapshot Reviews

We primarily use the solution to protect data in the cloud and data in the data center.

Because snapshots are immutable, if something such as ransomware comes along and corrupts our production data, I can roll the volumes back to the last snapshot. More commonly, somebody deletes or corrupts a file inadvertently. In some cases we can roll back to the last snapshot, however, that usually isn't a viable option because other data in the volume would be lost. That said, the system gives me the ability to mount up a Snapshot, go get the data that they were looking for and move it back to where they need it.

Saying that NetApp Snapshot technology has "improved [my] organization" is a bit of a stretch, but it - and the other technologies based upon it - is a critical component in our BCDR strategy.

Snapshot is a unique technology invented by NetApp that provides basic features for internal backup and recovery of data. This feature is built into the NetApp storage OS, unlike other storage systems that may require separate products or have less efficient snapshots.

NetApp snapshots are space-efficient and spontaneous. All of the data protection technologies offered by NetApp rely on this Snapshot.

Snapshot is basically the base of the backup and recovery. So, the products built around it are more attractive for the customer because, in the end, customers would like to take advantage of the backup and recovery offered by NetApp.

NetApp Snapshot's point-in-time copy functionality

By definition, a Snapshot is a point-in-time copy of data. This means that whenever you schedule or take a snapshot on NetApp, it is a copy of the data at that specific moment.

For example, you can take a backup of your data at 9 AM, and then have another snapshot at 1 PM. This is a standard model, and you will have your data's copy available on the cloud. Whenever you want to restore it, it will be restored based on the chosen snapshot.

The restore process is very fast, and the resources are easy to configure. Also, depending on the application, some require specific agents to take a snapshot. For instance, if you are taking a snapshot of an Oracle database, you need to use the agent from Oracle to take a snapshot. Similarly, if you are taking a snapshot of Microsoft SQL data, you need to use the Microsoft Shadow Copy Service along with Snapshot.

Most importantly, snapshots are space-efficient and consistent across all applications. This ensures that the data and backups will be available when needed.

Another technology used by NetApp is SnapLock, which integrates with Snapshot for autonomous ransomware protection and secure backups. SnapLock locks the backup data so that no one, including attackers, can change or interrupt the snapshot. This is another layer of protection provided by NetApp.

Compliance with data regulations:

NetApp also provides a product for regulatory compliance. This addresses requirements like global backups, remote site backups, and redundancy (e.g., n+1 or n+1+1), or a three-tier approach with backups on the storage system, another storage system, and tape or another medium.

This product is available to address compliance issues imposed by regulations and legal liabilities. I don't know the exact name, but I believe it's NetApp Compliance or something similar.

For example, if the customer is a bank, they may have compliance issues set by the Central Bank that require to save the data on three different tiers. 

Keeping up with AI:

To my knowledge, there is no direct relation with AI, but indirectly, there is an interrelation.  

Snapshot is entirely focused on backup and recovery. It's used indirectly to back up and restore data. 

The main use cases for NetApp Snapshot are data recovery and disaster scenarios.

We provide file services directly from NetApp Storage. NetApp Storage has the SMB service installed around the world. We leverage snapshots at the volume level for the SIP file shares. We connect the NetApp Storage with cloud volume objects sold in Azure. Our purpose for the Snapshot is to create a point-in-time Snapshot of storage and then replicate all the data into the cloud for our DR backup purposes.

Our architecture is designed using NetApp as a file server for DR backup. We use cloud volume objects as our hosts in Azure to move data from on-premises locations to the cloud. We leverage NetApp's Snapshot feature to capture the data.

We use primarily NetApp storage arrays for the entire file share infrastructure. Integration into our management infrastructure is done via monitoring, which SolarWinds provides. It integrates well with open-source setups like SNMP reporting or email alerting. Additionally, control-based access control integrates well within our infrastructure because NetApp supports integration with Active Directory. We use another product from NetApp called NetApp ActiveIQ for monitoring and troubleshooting the NetApp Storage, which is custom-made for NetApp.

My company uses NetApp Snapshot to protect our files and virtual machines. Our company also uses NetApp Snapshot to protect SAP HANA, and then we use NetApp Snapshot to create an SAP HANA database every hour.

The most valuable features of the solution are its resilience and capacity to recover files. If you face any problems in NetApp Snapshot, it is very easy to recover files.

We use it as an added data protection product. We take scheduled snapshots for troubleshooting purposes. We can set them up hourly, daily, weekly, or last week. Also, if we need to do some sort of restore, we can use FlexClone using the snapshot.

In our daily operations, we just use it as a scheduled backup option we offer new customers.

We had a customer who had a corrupt virtual machine, and we needed to restore the data. So, we used the Snapshot data to create a clone of the volume, which allowed us to recreate the virtual machine and provide it to the customer.

NetApp Snapshot has a lot of use cases depending on the user's resourcefulness. What it does is replace an image of the volume or whatever you want to create. Once you create it, then you can do whatever you like with it.

My customers use it for backups, replication, and cleaning.

Most of my clients do not use the cloud version because they are in the banking industry.

The most valuable features of NetApp Snapshot are the integration with other vendors and customization.