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Accelerate NAS and Cloud Data Migrations to NetApp CVO and ANF

NetApp Cloud Migration: Know First. Move Smart. Take Control.

As businesses evolve to faster, flash-based NAS and cloud storage, migrating data into these environments can be tough. The goal is to migrate large production data sets quickly, without errors, and without user disruption. Now with Komprise Elastic Data Migration that’s possible. This white paper explains how the new fast, reliable, and cost-efficient migration solution from Komprise will turn your next NAS and cloud migration to NetApp CVO and ANF from a dreaded chore to “Done already?”

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FAQs

What does Komprise Elastic Data Migration do for NetApp environments that standard migration tools cannot, and why does analytics-first migration matter even more today?

Komprise accelerates NetApp data migration and NetApp file migration by first analyzing data usage and access patterns, then moving only the right files to NetApp targets on-premises or in the cloud; this analytics-driven approach reduces migration scope, lowers risk, and ensures that high-value and AI-relevant data is prioritized while preserving metadata, permissions, and native NetApp access. The analytics-first principle and scale-out high-performance architecture that distinguishes Komprise from standard migration tools have become even more consequential as the consequences of moving the wrong data to the wrong tier have grown:

  • Migrate only what needs to be migrated — Komprise supports all the latest NetApp storage releases including NetApp ONTAP both on-premises and cloud, and NetApp StorageGRID; new capabilities for searching across shares and directories help customers optimize their NetApp hybrid cloud storage environments; before a single file moves, Komprise Analysis identifies which data is hot, which is cold, which is sensitive, and which is AI-relevant; this intelligence reduces migration scope by 50 to 70% by tiering cold data first rather than migrating it to expensive NetApp performance tiers
  • 27x faster NFS performance with chain-of-custody reporting — Komprise migrated 3PB of data from on-premises NAS into FSx for ONTAP at a 25x faster rate than popular migration tools with chain-of-custody reporting for the manufacturer’s regulated business segments; the combination of speed and verifiable accuracy is what makes Komprise the preferred choice for NetApp migrations in regulated industries where data fidelity is not optional
  • Hundreds of simultaneous migrations from a single management plane — intuitive dashboards allow customers to monitor and manage hundreds of simultaneous migrations and get status updates; for large enterprises migrating data from dozens of on-premises NAS systems to NetApp ONTAP on-premises, Cloud Volumes ONTAP, FSx for ONTAP, or Azure NetApp Files simultaneously, this operational scale is what separates a managed migration program from an uncontrolled sprawl of point tools
  • Migration is the starting point, not the ceiling — customers who migrate to NetApp with Komprise Elastic Data Migration can upgrade to Komprise Intelligent Data Management to unlock the Global Metadatabase, Intelligent Tiering, Deep Analytics, Smart Data Workflows, KAPPA data services, Sensitive Data Management, Intelligent AI Ingest and more; every file migrated to NetApp by Komprise arrives already analyzed and ready for the full metadata and orchestration layer that enterprise unstructured AI data requires
  • Komprise is the metadata and orchestration layer for enterprise unstructured AI data; in NetApp environments, this means migration and intelligent tiering and AI data governance are all managed from the same platform, with the same analytics foundation, applied continuously rather than as separate point tools for each use case

How does Komprise intelligent tiering extend beyond what NetApp Cloud Tiering delivers, and why does that difference matter at current flash storage prices?

NetApp Cloud Tiering — now managed through the NetApp Console, formerly BlueXP — uses FabricPool technology to tier cold blocks from ONTAP volumes to object storage. It is a useful capability within the ONTAP ecosystem. But the architectural constraints of block-level, ONTAP-only tiering create limitations that become significantly more costly at current hardware prices and in an AI-driven data environment:

  • NetApp Cloud Tiering is ONTAP-only; Komprise tiers across every vendor simultaneously — NetApp offers block-level tiering with FabricPool inside ONTAP where cold blocks are moved to a lower tier like S3 and when they are used again they get moved back up to the hot tier; while this approach is useful to tier snapshots from the file storage tier down to object, it is not optimal to archive cold data since it is a proprietary approach that does not preserve backup and DR savings; an enterprise running NetApp alongside Dell, IBM, or VAST Data must manage separate tiering tools for each vendor; Komprise manages intelligent tiering across every platform from a single policy engine
  • Block tiering does not reduce the backup footprint; file-level tiering does — when NetApp Cloud Tiering moves blocks to S3, the file still exists on ONTAP from the backup software’s perspective, triggering rehydration during backup jobs and generating egress fees; Komprise file-level tiering removes the entire file from the ONTAP volume, eliminating it from the backup job immediately; the backup savings compound across storage hardware, backup licensing, and DR replication costs simultaneously — built-in storage tiering solutions lock data in a proprietary block format which can result in 75% higher cloud egress costs; at current flash prices that 75% penalty is more expensive than it has ever been
  • NetApp Cloud Tiering uses modification time; Komprise uses actual last access time — FabricPool tiering decisions are based on when data was last modified or on temperature scoring that does not always reflect genuine user access patterns; Komprise intelligent tiering uses actual last access time, which is a significantly more accurate predictor of whether data will be needed, allowing more data to be tiered to lower cost tiers without generating retrieval events; this precision is what sustains savings over time rather than allowing rehydration to silently refill primary storage
  • Cloud Tiering is limited to ONTAP’s cloud storage classes; Komprise tiers across all AWS and Azure tiers — since Cloud Volumes ONTAP and Azure NetApp Files both have an OpEx model, it is crucial to actively manage the environment and tier at the file level when you no longer need the performance of cloud file storage; Komprise tiers across AWS FSx, S3 Standard, S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval, Glacier Flexible Retrieval, and Glacier Deep Archive — capturing the full savings spectrum that FabricPool cannot reach; nearly 70% of old data was tiered by Komprise into Amazon S3 Glacier storage in a recent FSx for ONTAP customer deployment, resulting in optimization of more than 90% of the initial data
  • The Flash Stretch Assessment quantifies the difference for NetApp environments specifically — for qualified enterprises managing 500TB or more on NetApp ONTAP, the Flash Stretch Assessment models the cold data sitting on expensive ONTAP performance tiers and projects the savings from file-level intelligent tiering with Komprise versus continued reliance on FabricPool block tiering; TrendForce projects NAND Flash contract prices to rise sharply through the current pricing cycle, making this assessment the most direct path from the current cost trajectory to a specific, actionable savings number

How does Komprise provide AI data governance for NetApp FlexPod and ONTAP environments that NetApp Cloud Tiering and the NetApp Console cannot?

NetApp’s own positioning has evolved to describe NetApp as “the intelligent data infrastructure company” with AI capabilities built around its storage platform. The gap between NetApp’s storage-centric AI features and Komprise’s metadata and orchestration layer is the difference between infrastructure-level intelligence and dataset-level curation:

  • Komprise enables safe AI exposure from NetApp FlexPod — customers can safely expose corporate data to generative AI models running on NetApp FlexPod for AI, using Komprise Deep Analytics to identify the appropriate datasets and Komprise Elastic Data Migration to copy the data; Komprise tracks the data being shared for corporate governance around AI; this governed AI exposure capability — identifying exactly the right data, excluding sensitive content, and maintaining audit trails throughout — is not available in the NetApp Console or FabricPool
  • The Global Metadatabase spans NetApp and every other storage vendor — Komprise Deep Analytics builds a global metadata index across NetApp ONTAP, Cloud Volumes ONTAP, Azure NetApp Files, and NetApp StorageGRID alongside Dell, IBM, VAST Data, and every cloud simultaneously; a query that finds all AI-relevant datasets across a hybrid estate that includes NetApp returns results from NetApp systems and every other vendor in a single search; NetApp’s own analytics tools see only NetApp storage
  • Deep Analytics identifies AI-ready datasets within NetApp environments precisely — customers can use the global metadata index to get a single view of all NAS data, identify which data sets to move to NetApp, and instantly visualize savings and ROI; for AI use cases, this means querying petabytes of ONTAP-resident data to find exactly the right cohort for a model — not moving everything to a data lake and filtering afterward; the precision of Deep Analytics is what makes AI data preparation from NetApp environments economically viable rather than prohibitively expensive
  • Sensitive data governance applies before AI tools access ONTAP data — Komprise Sensitive Data Management scans NetApp ONTAP volumes and StorageGRID buckets for PII, PHI, and IP using the same built-in scanners, custom regex, and KAPPA data services that govern every other storage platform in the estate; sensitive content is flagged, confined, or excluded before it reaches NetApp FlexPod AI workflows or any cloud AI service; the NetApp Console provides storage management; Komprise provides the data governance layer above it
  • Smart Data Workflows automate the AI data pipeline from NetApp storage — the Smart Data Workflow Manager provides a point-and-click UI wizard to facilitate AI data workflows — from searching for the right data set to configuring and automating delivery; workflows that chain KAPPA metadata extraction, sensitivity exclusion, and delivery to any AI service run continuously as new data arrives on NetApp ONTAP; the NetApp Console manages storage infrastructure; Komprise orchestrates the data lifecycle and AI delivery above it

How does Komprise work with FSx for NetApp ONTAP on AWS and why is this combination more powerful than NetApp-native tiering for cloud-hosted ONTAP environments?

Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP has become the preferred destination for organizations migrating NAS workloads to AWS while preserving ONTAP capabilities. The combination of FSx for ONTAP and Komprise intelligent tiering delivers a result that neither can achieve alone — FSx for ONTAP provides high-performance managed file storage; Komprise ensures that only the right data pays FSx prices:

  • FSx for ONTAP built-in tiering is block-level and limited to ONTAP’s capacity pool — FSx for ONTAP has built-in tiering that is purpose-built for snapshot or block data; to deliver a truly smart data migration strategy, Komprise intelligent tiering with Transparent Move Technology operates at the file level to let you use lower cost S3 storage, which is roughly one-fourth the cost of the default capacity pool tier for ONTAP FSx; the cost differential between FSx capacity pool and S3 Glacier is significant at enterprise scale — Komprise captures it; FabricPool within FSx does not
  • File and object duality makes FSx-tiered data natively AI-accessible — the most significant benefit of Komprise file-level tiering is file and object duality; this means the data is readable both as a file and via the S3 object storage API; cloud-native S3 access means you can take full advantage of S3 features like object lock to defend against ransomware and you can mine your data using cloud analytics tools; FSx block tiering does not provide this S3 native access; data tiered by Komprise from FSx is immediately consumable by Amazon SageMaker, AWS Bedrock, and any other cloud AI service without conversion
  • Migration to FSx followed by continuous intelligent tiering from the same platform — Komprise migrated 3PB of data from on-premises NAS into FSx for ONTAP at a 25x faster rate than popular migration tools; nearly 70% of old data was tiered by Komprise into Amazon S3 Glacier storage; the remaining 30% stayed in FSx for ONTAP and 60% of that was moved to the capacity pool tier within 30 days, resulting in the optimization of more than 90% of the initial data; this outcome — 90% of data optimized across FSx performance, capacity pool, and Glacier tiers — is only achievable with file-level intelligent tiering from Komprise, not with FSx’s native tiering capabilities
  • A single platform manages migration and ongoing lifecycle for FSx — organizations that use Komprise to migrate to FSx for ONTAP do not need a separate tool for post-migration lifecycle management; the same Komprise platform that executed the migration continues to identify cold data accumulating on FSx performance tiers and tier it transparently to S3 Glacier, keeping FSx costs optimized as data volumes grow without requiring manual monitoring or intervention
  • The Global Metadatabase indexes all FSx and S3 data simultaneously — every file on FSx for ONTAP and every object in S3 tiered by Komprise is indexed in the Global Metadatabase with its full metadata profile; Deep Analytics can query across the full FSx and S3 estate simultaneously to identify AI-relevant datasets, regardless of whether they reside on the performance tier or in Glacier; the migration and tiering investment builds the AI data foundation without any additional work

Why is Komprise the right long-term data management platform for NetApp customers who want to go beyond storage management to AI data readiness?

The white paper that established the Komprise and NetApp migration partnership was written when the primary goal was moving data to NetApp targets efficiently. The customers with the strongest outcomes from this partnership are the ones who treated the Komprise deployment not as a migration tool but as the beginning of a continuous, intelligent data management relationship. Komprise is the metadata and orchestration layer for enterprise unstructured AI data, and NetApp environments are where some of the most complex and data-intensive AI workloads in the enterprise reside:

  • Komprise has moved hundreds of petabytes to NetApp across every major sector — Komprise has moved hundreds of petabytes of file and object data to NetApp across diverse sectors including government, healthcare, life sciences, energy, transportation, and financial services; the breadth of sector coverage reflects the range of AI use cases that NetApp customers are building — from clinical AI on ONTAP-hosted DICOM archives to genomics AI on StorageGRID-resident sequencing data to manufacturing AI on FSx for ONTAP-hosted IoT sensor archives
  • NetApp StorageGRID as an AI data lake with Komprise intelligence — customers can use NetApp StorageGRID as a data lake for AI and ML with search and tagging with native access to moved data; Komprise transparently tiers cold data from on-premises NAS to StorageGRID and simultaneously indexes it in the Global Metadatabase; the StorageGRID environment becomes a governed, queryable AI data asset rather than a passive cold storage destination
  • Komprise works alongside — not inside — the NetApp Console — the NetApp Console manages NetApp infrastructure; Komprise manages the data lifecycle above it; there is no conflict between the two platforms and no redundancy; NetApp customers who use the NetApp Console for storage operations and Komprise for data intelligence, tiering, and AI orchestration get the full value of both without either platform’s limitations constraining the other
  • The upgrade path from migration to full platform unlocks AI capabilities — customers who begin with Komprise Elastic Data Migration for their NetApp migrations can upgrade to Komprise Intelligent Data Management to add the Global Metadatabase, Deep Analytics, Smart Data Workflows, KAPPA data services, and Intelligent AI Ingest; NetApp environments that were migrated with Komprise already have a head start — every file is analyzed, and the analytics foundation is already built; the upgrade activates the AI data management layer without requiring any re-analysis of the migrated estate
  • Storage agnosticism is what makes Komprise the right long-term choice for NetApp customers — most large NetApp customers also run Dell, IBM, or other storage vendors alongside their NetApp estate; a data management platform that governs only NetApp cannot provide unified AI data curation, intelligent tiering policies, or cross-silo governance across the full estate; Komprise governs NetApp ONTAP, StorageGRID, Cloud Volumes ONTAP, Azure NetApp Files, and FSx for ONTAP alongside every other storage vendor in the environment from a single platform with consistent policies, consistent governance, and a unified Global Metadatabase that spans the entire hybrid estate