NetApp Inc. is moving more into the enterprise business, and it is leveraging a strong partnership with Veeam Software Inc. to accomplish that. Both companies believe that as enterprise customers digitally transform their businesses, they will need the flexibility to manage and move data across on premise, public cloud or private cloud platforms.

“Where NetApp is heading is being able to manage and move the data regardless of where it’s at. I call this the gold opportunity,” said Maria Olson (pictured, right), vice president of global strategy and alliances at NetApp.

Olson visited theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, and answered questions from co-hosts Dave Vellante, (@dvellante), and Stu Miniman, (@stu), during this year’s VeeamOn event in New Orleans, Louisiana. She was joined on the set by Andy Vandeveld (pictured, left), vice president of global alliances at Veeam Software.

They discussed the evolving cloud service provider base, customer consumption models and their relationship with VMware Inc. (* Disclosure below.)

Embracing and expanding cloud business

Thirty percent of Veeam’s 210,000 customers are also NetApp customers, according to Olson. That joint customer base has allowed both companies to sell storage and data management products to “new world” cloud service providers, such as Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, as well as “old-world” telecommunications giants like AT&T, Verizon and Telefonica.

“We have a big footprint in both of those camps,” Olson said. “We’re companies that are embracing cloud; we’re not fighting cloud.”

Vandeveld told theCUBE that the strategy for both companies is to accommodate the changing data consumption model for their customers. “What customers are telling us is ‘let us decide how we want to consume.’ [We] just need to accommodate that consumption,” he said.

The two executives also addressed the relationship between their companies and VMware. Veeam initially provided backup and recovery services for VMware before branching out.

“NetApp made a big bet in virtualized environments, providing big differentiated offerings with VMware,” Olson said. “Veeam made a big bet with VMware. Our installed bases and the co-innovation and development that we’ve done have already paid off in spades.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of VeeamOn 2017. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for VeeamOn 2017. Neither Veeam Software Inc. nor other sponsors have editorial influence on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE