Virtual Machine Growth Exposes OpenShift Data Protection Gaps
Enterprises are rapidly expanding virtualised estates on Red Hat OpenShift as they respond to rising data volumes and AI-driven workloads. Red Hat research cited by NetApp shows that 90% of organisations view virtualisation as a driver of innovation, and 71% report that more than half of their infrastructure is already virtualised. This shift is straining traditional backup approaches. Methods that rely on scanning full virtual machine disks extend backup windows and make recovery timelines difficult to predict, especially as environments scale. The result is growing pressure on IT teams to meet recovery point and recovery time objectives without adding operational overhead. As OpenShift Virtualization becomes a central platform for both virtual machines and containers, organisations need more efficient, fine-grained ways to capture and restore data. This context sets the stage for the NetApp and Red Hat collaboration focused on modernising OpenShift data protection.
NetApp–Red Hat Integration Targets Hybrid Cloud Backup Bottlenecks
NetApp and Red Hat are aligning closely around Red Hat OpenShift to tackle backup and recovery bottlenecks in hybrid cloud environments. The collaboration introduces new data management capabilities that span on-premises and public cloud deployments, with a focus on virtual machines running on OpenShift and OpenShift Virtualization. NetApp’s Backup and Recovery for Red Hat OpenShift now delivers automated, virtual machine–level protection and recovery workflows, designed to streamline day-to-day operations while maintaining storage efficiency. These capabilities are particularly relevant for organisations operating across multiple clouds, where consistent protection policies and tools are critical. By integrating with Red Hat’s hybrid cloud platforms, NetApp aims to give customers a single operational experience for backing up both container-based applications and virtualised workloads, reducing the complexity that typically arises when managing distinct tools and processes for different infrastructure types.
Incremental-Forever Backups and Change Block Tracking Speed Recovery
A core advance in the NetApp Red Hat integration is the move from full-disk scanning to block-level change tracking. NetApp Backup and Recovery for Red Hat OpenShift now uses incremental-forever backups, capturing only changed data blocks while preserving storage efficiencies. This approach shortens backup windows and shifts some processing load away from backup operations, helping IT teams protect growing VM estates without overwhelming infrastructure. Automated VM-level workflows also support more consistent and repeatable recovery processes, which is crucial for meeting strict recovery objectives. For Kubernetes-based virtual machines, NetApp’s disaster recovery service—now supporting OpenShift and OpenShift Virtualization in public preview—adds orchestrated failover and fallback workflows for workloads stored on ONTAP. Together, these features are designed to deliver more predictable backup behaviour and virtual machine recovery, even as environments expand in size and complexity.
Disaster Recovery and Multi-Cloud Storage Optimisations
Beyond backup, the collaboration extends into orchestrated disaster recovery for hybrid cloud backup scenarios. NetApp’s disaster recovery service introduces guided failover and fallback for Kubernetes-based virtual machines, enabling structured responses to outages rather than ad hoc recovery attempts. In public cloud environments, Google Cloud NetApp Volumes and the Trident CSI driver for Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization are now generally available on Red Hat OpenShift Dedicated on Google Cloud with certified support. This allows organisations to run containers and virtual machines through a single cloud setup, simplifying infrastructure choices. NetApp Trident has also been enhanced to support parallel execution of controller operations for Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP and Google Cloud NetApp Volumes, replacing serial execution. These storage optimisations reduce bottlenecks, helping maintain performance as backup and recovery tasks scale alongside production workloads.
Toward Predictable Hybrid Cloud Operations for Enterprise Workloads
The NetApp Red Hat integration is ultimately aimed at enterprises managing multi-cloud infrastructure with diverse workloads, from stateful containers to large virtual machine fleets. By standardising OpenShift data protection across on-premises systems and public clouds, the partnership promises more consistent operations and easier mobility of applications and data. Executives from both companies emphasise that legacy disaster recovery models were not built for the scale and pace of today’s virtualised environments. With incremental-forever backups, change block tracking, and orchestrated disaster recovery workflows, IT teams gain tools to reduce downtime, improve predictability, and limit operational complexity. As virtualised estates continue to grow, these capabilities may become essential for organisations that want to support innovation without sacrificing resilience, aligning hybrid cloud backup strategies with modern application and data demands.