Tag: Easy Button

Fluid partnered with NetApp to deliver a first third-party solution to Cloud Manager

Posted on | by Alex | Leave a Comment on Fluid partnered with NetApp to deliver a first third-party solution to Cloud Manager

Cloud manager

(2-3 minute read) 

Fluid, one of Australia’s leading technology companies and a partner of NetApp’s Unified Partner Program, has collaborated with NetApp, a global, cloud-led, data-centric software company, to deliver a new customised modular cloud service to the global marketplace, launched on NetApp Cloud Manager.

Fluid is an automation & orchestration platform for connected networking, smart storage & collaborative compute, that takes lengthy operations down to just minutes at the push of a button. The technology leverages Kubernetes to ensure a solid base for a scalable multi-cloud or hybrid-cloud solutions. Fluid allows for the instant creation of Kubernetes clusters and virtual machine workloads on physical hardware; backed by modern, cloud-scalable networking and storage, all managed from the single pane of glass that is the Fluid Cloud Manager Dashboard.

“Congratulations to the team at Fluid on the development of such an innovative solution to bring to market through NetApp Cloud Manager,” said Neville James, Director of Channel & Alliances, NetApp Australia and New Zealand. “The market is demanding support on their digital transformation journey to transition to a more agile, modern, and hybrid-cloud architecture. NetApp partnering with Fluid provides a unique technology to support our customers’ data management.”

Fluid Founder, Andrew Sjoquist said, “We are thrilled that Fluid has earned its place in NetApp Cloud Manager. We have been working on this project in conjunction with teams across the NetApp organisation, working on a secret sauce that enables the quickest and most flexible networking that you will find, along with a robust, Kubernetes-powered edge compute solution. It’s a fantastic solution for our clients, for NetApp partners, and anyone looking for a better way in their technology projects.”

One of the brilliant benefits of Fluid is its speed and simplicity. With built-in networking orchestration, building and deploying diverse environments becomes the work of a sole operator, rather than multiple project groups. Fluid allows all the elements in building, configuring, and deploying a multi-cloud, multi-location, geographically diverse environment to be completed in a single step – in just minutes.

Fluid allows unparalleled flexibility by deploying its operating system across the integrated infrastructure it provisions. Additionally, Fluid eliminates the need for expensive third-party software components, – such as licensed, legacy hypervisors, simplifying application cluster management, and greatly reducing cost overheads.

Fluid takes bare-metal infrastructure and, in a few clicks or API calls, builds an environment ready for workloads to be deployed as containers or virtual machines. Fluid can run Google Anthos (Fluid is Anthos ready) concurrently or separately to other management platforms such as Rancher and Red Hat OpenShift.

The platform can run these environments side by side on the same hardware, enabling the most efficient use of a company’s infrastructure.

Fluid integration achieves faster time to market, competitive advantage, cost savings, and improved project execution & efficiency.

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Fluid & NetApp Astra Data Store: Big data needs solved with a single click. {New Feature}

Posted on | by Alex | Leave a Comment on Fluid & NetApp Astra Data Store: Big data needs solved with a single click. {New Feature}

Astra Data Store

(1-2 minute read) 

Fluid is on a quest to make everyone’s job easier, from DevOps engineers, to customers, to management, and everyone in between. This has been tackled, in this instance, with an integration with NetApp’s Astra Data Store that allows users to create very quickly, locations to store data on any vendor’s compute hardware –“anyware”.  

Leveraging the power of NetApp’s ONTAP operating system;  
“Fluid together with Astra Data Store has enabled a true software-defined architecture to be deployed, and redeployed as requirements change in line with business goals.” – Andrew Sjoquist, Fluid Founder.

Astra Data Store button

This new feature is particularly noteworthy as it has proven to customers that they can have a flexible and adaptable technology in an ever-changing marketplace. Not only this, but the integration is complete at the click of a button, adding to the suite of ‘easy buttons’ Fluid already has in place.  

The pandemic conditions in the last two years have shown that business conditions are prone to rapid and extreme change, and as such there should be an expectation your technology will adapt and be able to do the same.  

The need for Astra Data Store to be deployed at the edge is rapidly increasing. For example, retail businesses are quickly seeking cutting-edge data sources, monitoring systems, and applications to evaluate new consumer behaviour sparked by the impact of COVID-19. “Sophisticated retailers are evolving how they evaluate stores and optimize their network.”-McKinsey, 2020.   

Retailers are now taking a comprehensive data-driven approach that can’t always be serviced by the public cloud due to technical latency, data sovereignty, or geography limitations. Enter Fluid. 

This solution, Fluid with Astra Data Store, is defined in software and therefore allows for the cloud capabilities to be wherever you require them, taking care of geographical needs and technical latency. It’s a cutting-edge technology with fast edge deployments and redeployments through an ‘easy button’ on the Fluid interface or via the Fluid API. 

“After working closely with the Astra Data Store development teams to understand how to automatically deploy this software on Fluid nodes, we created a product that alleviates the burden on the end user to create the network configuration Astra Data Store requires,” said Sjoquist.  

Ultimately, this partnership allows all clients to have a NetApp environment for their data without the need to purchase NetApp hardware, bringing the Fluid Team one step closer on our quest to make deployments for a variety of workloads easy for all.  

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NetApp uncovers the platform that transforms tin to full stack in a few minutes

Posted on | by Alex | Leave a Comment on NetApp uncovers the platform that transforms tin to full stack in a few minutes

 Netapp uncovers

(1-2 minute read) 

NetApp is rolling out the first third-party integration tool, Fluid, on Cloud Manager which begs the question, what is Fluid?

Fluid is an automation and orchestration system that allows businesses to accelerate the journey from bare-metal hardware (or tin) out of the cardboard box to a full-stack running in under an hour. 

Here’s NetApp’s Newsworthy Minute exploring the optimizing cloud environments with Fluid and Cloud Manager:

Key takeaways from the Newsworthy Minute are:  

  1. Fluid eliminates a series of manual steps that traditionally comes with setting up infrastructure. With Fluid, all the infrastructure complexity is absolved from the user and becomes a really simple process, taking the usual weeks or months to build up bare metal infrastructure, into a quick click of a button.  
  1. Fluid allows you to automatically stand-up connectivity between NetApp Data Fabric elements, cloud-based offerings like Azure NetApp Files (ANF), AWS FSx for NetApp OnTap, or Google Cloud Volume Services and storage systems in a matter of minutes.  
  1. Fluid eliminates the complexity of managing multiple interfaces, including the training to administer and manage those interfaces, by providing an easy user experience and single environment.  

Imagine one interface to manage all compute, network, and storage needs, no matter what preexisting vendors and systems they use.  


The inspiration behind this platform is to transfer engineering efforts placed on building complex infrastructure, into time and effort back into enhancing applications.  

Fluid is the first system to solve for an automated bare-metal hardware transformation. The first self-assembling smart infrastructure taking businesses into their own unique centralized portal for greater control and autonomy. 

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Enjoy a cloud-like infrastructure with Fluid’s easy buttons

Posted on | by Alex | Leave a Comment on Enjoy a cloud-like infrastructure with Fluid’s easy buttons

easy buttons

(3-4 minute read)  

Fluid brings the magic of cloud that we’ve all come to know and love, to infrastructure, at the touch of a button. Here are the top three easy button functionalities and the Fluid Team has plans for more… 

What is Fluid?  

Fluid is an orchestration and automation platform that enables businesses to deploy cloud-like infrastructure, anywhere. It deploys cloud-like networks and compute stacks on bare-metal hardware in a matter of minutes, whether that’s on-premise, at the edge, or in a co-located facility.  


The platform’s goal is to make infrastructure easy. This collection of easy buttons mean the complexity that exists with standing up compute, network, and storage disappear. All various configuration complexities that exist within data centers now become cloud-like for any business no matter where their information resides and with no restrictions on region or location.  

Fluid comes out of the box with the following easy buttons:   

AWS Easy Button
  1. Easy button for connecting to AWS

The entire process, start to finish, of; 

  • connecting your networking stack to on-premise hardware  
  • then to the server hardware  
  • through AWS network switching hardware  
  • across an elastic cloud connect provider or a VPN tunnel 
  • to the AWS stack 
  • with all networking elements configured 
    It’s literally achieved with a click of a button.  

A process that requires a dozen steps from different teams within an organisation, and approximately a months’ timeline, is now turned around in under an hour with Fluid.  

AWS easy button = instant AWS stack set up and project cost-efficiency   

Kube Easy Button
  1. Easy button for downloading KubeConfig files

Fluid marries any tool of choice that manages your Kubernetes infrastructure, whether that’s OpenShift, Rancher, Kubectl, or any other in the marketplace, for an easy kubeconfig file button for all clusters.  

Kubeconfig button = a universal cluster management system 

Spot Easy Button
  1. Easy button for NetApp Spot Controller

The easy button to deploy NetApp Spot Controller is realized on-premises inside of Fluid, running in a co-located facility allowing for a truly hybrid multi-cloud story to form. This means the infrastructure location and complexity fade away, building features and enhancements that will really serve the client.  

NetApp Spot button = visibility and automation for all your cloud operations  

Keep a lookout for new Fluid features like an easy NetApp Astra Data Store button.  

Fluid has created the easy button for infrastructure that lives outside of the cloud. The agility of the application allows development teams to accelerate the journey from bare-metal hardware out of the cardboard box to a full-stack running in under an hour. Fluid makes it easy. 

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