Organizations face increasing challenges managing complex technologies while maintaining optimal performance. This three-part series explores NetApp Instaclustr architectures, starting with the fully managed approach of running workloads in NetApp-owned accounts.
What is Instaclustr?
Instaclustr provides a unified platform for deploying, managing, and monitoring all components of your data layer and associated infrastructure in the cloud of your choice. Instaclustr allows customers to choose one of our supported technologies, choose a cloud (or on-prem environment), and have that technology deployed in minutes, fully production ready including ongoing operations and support.
Instaclustr currently supports leading open source technologies including Apache Cassandra®, Apache Kafka®, PostgreSQL®, Valkey®, Cadence®, OpenSearch®, and ClickHouse®—all managed through a unified interface.
The NetApp-owned account model
The most straightforward deployment option for organizations looking to leverage Instaclustr is to run workloads in NetApp-owned accounts. This approach delivers maximum convenience and minimal operational overhead for customers and can be deployed within minutes of logging into the platform for the first time. For those looking to run these workloads in their own accounts, we recommend you take a look at Part 2 of this series.
How it works
In this model, NetApp maintains ownership and control of the cloud account running the infrastructure which is hosting your workloads. You simply access the managed services through application APIs, connection strings, and the Instaclustr console.
Here’s what happens behind the scenes:
- Infrastructure provisioning: NetApp Instaclustr maintains cloud accounts across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, managing the entire infrastructure stack.
- Cluster deployment: When you request a cluster, Instaclustr provisions the appropriate resources within their cloud accounts, configuring all nodes with production-ready settings.
- Secured access: Your applications can then connect to these clusters through a variety of methods. The simplest is over public IP address. However, for more secure environments Instaclustr offers Private Network Clusters in AWS and GCP, and client connection can be established via VPC Peering (AWS or GCP), or for some applications PrivateLink (AWS) and Private Service Connect (GCP) using authentication managed through Instaclustr’s platform.
- Full lifecycle management: NetApp Instaclustr handles all aspects of operations, including monitoring, scaling, updates, backups, and recovery.
Key benefits of the NetApp-owned account approach
1. Simplified operations
The most significant advantage is operational simplicity. Your team doesn’t need to worry about infrastructure management, capacity planning, or technical expertise in the configuration details. The Instaclustr platform automates the deployment and configuration, allowing you to spin up production-ready clusters within minutes.
2. Reduced total cost of ownership
This approach delivers substantial cost savings through multiple avenues:
- Elimination of infrastructure management overhead
- Optimized resource utilization through NetApp’s expertise
- Reduction in required specialized staff
- Predictable subscription-based pricing
*Note: When running in NetApp-Owned accounts, if you have discounts from the hyperscaler where these nodes are running, they cannot be applied in the NetApp-owned accounts. Part 2 of this series discusses running Instaclustr workloads in your own cloud accounts, which does allow you to take full advantage of your discounts.
3. Enterprise-grade reliability
The Instaclustr management systems continuously monitor thousands of metrics from every node, ensuring optimal performance and availability. The platform automatically handles routine maintenance, security patches, and version upgrades.
4. Rapid scalability
Need more capacity? The platform allows you to scale processing capability up or down in minutes. Customers can achieve a ten-fold improvement in cluster throughput in under 90 minutes through our scaling mechanisms. If you are interested in learning more about this, check out this blog post.
5. Multi-cloud flexibility
While your workloads run in NetApp-owned accounts, you still maintain cloud provider flexibility. The platform operates across AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and on-prem, allowing you to select the provider that best matches your requirements or maintain consistency with your existing cloud strategy. It is not uncommon to have workloads deployed into multiple clouds, all managed from the Instaclustr console—we can even run a single Cassandra cluster across two cloud providers!
6. AI-ready infrastructure
For organizations building AI applications, Instaclustr supports vector search on PostgreSQL, Cassandra, OpenSearch, and ClickHouse—eliminating the burden of deploying and managing back-end technology stacks crucial for AI initiatives.
Security and compliance
Instaclustr excels by providing comprehensive security measures and adheres to various industry standards and regulations, including GDPR, SOC 2, and HIPAA. This not only helps you meet regulatory requirements, but also ensures your data upholds the highest levels of data protection. Customers can also enable PCI Compliance Mode, an enterprise feature, if secure handling of credit card information is needed.
Getting started
Implementing the Instaclustr-owned account model involves a straightforward process:
- Create an account: Determine which technologies you want Instaclustr to manage.
- Configuration selection: Choosing the cloud, instance types, regions, and initial cluster sizes.
- Deployment: Instaclustr provisions and configures your environments.
- Integration: Connect your applications to the managed services.
- Ongoing management: Use the Instaclustr console and APIs to monitor and adjust your environments.
Conclusion
The NetApp-owned account model offers a compelling solution for organizations to quickly try our service and leverage open source data technologies without the operational complexity. By handling infrastructure management, optimization, and maintenance, Instaclustr allows your team to focus on application development and business innovation rather than database administration.
In the next part of this series, we’ll explore the alternative approach of running NetApp Instaclustr workloads in customer-owned accounts, examining the additional control and customization options this model provides.
