Event Review: Cloud Café Event (Manchester)

Following a successful Executive Briefing Centre in Amsterdam last month, Simplify IT were asked by the attending customers if we would arrange a follow-up focus session to spend more time on NetApp’s Cloud portfolio.

We were happy to help and yesterday saw us host the first of three NetApp Cloud Café events, this time at the Midland Hotel in Manchester.

Mike Andrews, Technical Solution Architect at NetApp, kindly delivered an interactive and informative afternoon with a real focus on adding value to each of the attendees differing goals and requirements. Mike is one of the most knowledgeable experts in his specialist area of NetApp’s Cloud portfolio and Hyperscaler Integration, which was evident in his presentation.

We kicked off the afternoon taking a deep dive into NetApp Cloud Volumes Service and Cloud Volumes ONTAP and how these services, although similar, have vastly different use cases which Mike demonstrated with live demonstrations.

Lee Rogers, Simplify IT’s Managing Director, talked to the group about how they can consume NetApp’s Cloud offerings through our self-service portal which is a new feature from the re-launch of our website.

The second half of the café was focused all around NetApp’s SaaS Backup . We concentrated the tool specifically to Office365 as everyone in the room was using O365, but none were backing this area of their environment up – which from our experience isn’t uncommon.

As Mike navigated through the demonstration a number of thought-provoking questions were asked to the group such as how would data loss in Office365 affect their businesses?

Everyone who attended left with a broader understanding of what NetApp has to offer in the cloud and of the value that NetApp and Simplify IT can add to their Cloud journey.

Next stop: NetApp Cloud Café – Uxbridge 29th May

Tom Robinson

Account Manager