Collaboration delivers a secure data platform to power AI and sovereignty in private clouds

NetApp® (NASDAQ: NTAP), the Intelligent Data Infrastructure company, today announced that it has expanded its collaboration with Google Cloud with a 4-year Enterprise Agreement to accelerate the deployment of the NetApp storage solutions within the Google Distributed Cloud air-gapped (GDC), Google's sovereign cloud platform delivered by World Wide Technology (WWT). The NetApp data platform within this full-stack, air-gapped private cloud solution delivers the built-in security organizations need to handle sensitive information and meet data sovereignty requirements.

“For government agencies and defense organizations, sensitive and classified data can’t leave controlled environments, but that data is also critical to AI‑driven decision‑making,” said Cesar Cernuda, President at NetApp. “By embedding NetApp’s secure-by-design storage systems into Google Distributed Cloud, we're enabling customers to build Intelligent Data Infrastructure that provides the foundation to support accredited, enterprise‑grade AI directly within sovereign and air‑gapped environments. Now, public sector customers can modernize operations, accelerate insight, and innovate responsibly without compromising security, compliance, or national sovereignty.”

Google Distributed Cloud extends customers’ cloud infrastructure and services to the places customers need them, including on-premises data centers and network edges. NetApp AFF, StorageGRID, and Trident solutions enable Intelligent Data Infrastructure that, with the integrated GDC solution, provides private cloud with zero-trust security and the ability to store data locally, manage encryption keys, and maintain control. Leveraging these systems within GDC enables customers to deploy cloud technology and applications, including AI capabilities, while maintaining more control over their IT environments by bringing the cloud closer to where their data is generated or creating air-gapped environments that limit or eliminate outside connections.

“Across the public sector, agencies are being asked to do more with data while operating under increasingly strict sovereignty, security, and compliance mandates,” said Muninder Sambi, VP, Product Management & Supply Chain, Google Distributed Cloud, Google Cloud. “Google Distributed Cloud was designed for exactly these environments, enabling customers to bring modern cloud services and advanced AI capabilities into sovereign, air‑gapped, and disconnected settings. By working with NetApp, we are helping government and regulated enterprises innovate where their data resides—supporting mission‑critical workloads with the highest levels of security, compliance, and operational integrity, without slowing the pace of transformation.”

Over the last year, Google Cloud has extended its AI capabilities for regulated use cases. Gemini’s advanced reasoning and state-of-the-art generation capabilities are available on GDC to unlock key generative AI capabilities such as automation, content generation, discovery, and summarization on-premises. Customers can operate fully disconnected, while still integrating Google's AI capabilities, enabling innovation while meeting strict security and compliance requirements.

“AI has the potential to transform how every organization operates, even those facing the most stringent controls to meet national security and data sovereignty requirements,” said Joe Koenig, President at WWT. “Leveraging data-driven insights to power your business requires a combination of innovative AI capabilities with powerful infrastructure.”

Additional Resources

• NetApp Expands Collaboration with Google Cloud to Provide Data Storage for Distributed Cloud Infrastructure
• NetApp and Google Cloud solutions

About NetApp

For more than three decades, NetApp has helped the world’s leading organizations navigate change – from the rise of enterprise storage to the intelligent era defined by data and AI. Today, NetApp is the Intelligent Data Infrastructure company, helping customers turn data into a catalyst for innovation, resilience, and growth.

At the heart of that infrastructure is the NetApp data platform – the unified, enterprise-grade, intelligent foundation that connects, protects, and activates data across every cloud, workload, and environment. Built on the proven power of NetApp ONTAP, our leading data management software and OS, and enhanced by automation through the AI Data Engine and AFX, it delivers observability, resilience, and intelligence at scale.

Disaggregated by design, the NetApp data platform separates storage, services, and control so enterprises can modernize faster, scale efficiently, and innovate without lock-in. As the only enterprise storage platform natively embedded in the world’s largest clouds, it gives organizations the freedom to run any workload anywhere with consistent performance, governance, and protection.

With NetApp, data is always ready – ready to defend against threats, ready to power AI, and ready to drive the next breakthrough. That’s why the world’s most forward-thinking enterprises trust NetApp to turn intelligence into advantage.

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