HCLTech and NetApp expanded their partnership on August 13, introducing a hybrid cloud storage-as-a-service offering for enterprise AI and data-driven workloads. The offering combines HCLTech's U4X infrastructure framework with NetApp Keystone's pay-as-you-go storage model and connects with HCLTech's AI Factory suite, according to the companies' joint announcement.
HCLTech and NetApp expanded their partnership on August 13 with a hybrid cloud storage-as-a-service offering aimed at enterprise AI, generative AI and other data-driven workloads. According to the companies' announcement, the offering combines HCLTech's Utility for Everything, or U4X, digital infrastructure framework with NetApp Keystone, NetApp's pay-as-you-go storage service.
The companies described the service as a consumption-based model through which customers can scale storage capacity, performance and data services as workload requirements change. Reporting by Economic Times Telecom and Express Computer states that the offering also connects with HCLTech's AI Factory suite for AI development, deployment and operations.
Consumption model for hybrid workloads
The joint offering targets organizations operating AI and GenAI workloads alongside traditional enterprise systems. HCLTech and NetApp said the model is intended to align infrastructure consumption with changing business and workload requirements, rather than require large upfront storage purchases.
Alvaro Celis, NetApp's chief partner and ecosystem officer, said the collaboration gives customers access to NetApp's intelligent data infrastructure through what he called a flexible and accessible business model, supported by HCLTech's delivery expertise. Rampal Singh, senior vice president of HCLTech's Hybrid Cloud Business Unit, said the combination of flexible infrastructure models and data-management capabilities is intended to help clients scale AI pragmatically.
HCLTech and NetApp also said the service is designed to improve data readiness and governance and to support workloads closer to where data resides. Financial Express and CRN Asia reported that the companies frame those capabilities as support for moving AI projects from pilots toward broader production deployment.
What remains unspecified
The announcement does not identify the specific NetApp data services available through the combined offering. StorageReview noted that neither company detailed the underlying data services in the announcement. That leaves practical implementation questions for platform teams.
The companies cited two unnamed deployments as examples of their existing work: a global food and beverage company that adopted a consumption-based model, and a European telecommunications provider that used the companies' capabilities across distributed environments. Because neither customer nor measured technical outcome was disclosed, the examples do not establish performance benchmarks for the new AI-oriented service.
For AI infrastructure teams, the announcement is primarily a commercial and operating-model development rather than a disclosed storage-technology release. Organizations comparing storage-as-a-service options generally need to assess data locality, egress exposure, latency, throughput guarantees, identity integration and governance tooling against their specific training, inference and data-engineering workflows. Consumption pricing can reduce capital expenditure commitments, but comparable deployments commonly require close monitoring of utilization and performance demand to make operating costs predictable.
Key Points #
- 1HCLTech and NetApp combined U4X and Keystone to offer consumption-based hybrid storage for enterprise AI, GenAI and conventional workloads.
- 2The announcement connects the storage service with HCLTech AI Factory but does not detail the underlying data services.
- 3Across comparable AI infrastructure deployments, consumption models shift evaluation toward utilization, locality, throughput guarantees, governance controls and operating-cost predictability.
Scoring Rationale #
The partnership packages enterprise AI storage and data management into a consumption model that can matter to organizations operating hybrid infrastructure. Its practitioner impact is constrained by limited disclosure of technical details.
Sources #
Primary source and supporting public references used for this report.
View 5 more sources #
HCLTech, NetApp partner on STaaS to drive enterprise AI adoptiontelecom.economictimes.indiatimes.comHCLTech expands NetApp partnership to launch consumption-based storage offering for enterprise AIcrnasia.comHCLTech, NetApp expand partnership to accelerate enterprise AIexpresscomputer.inHCLTech, NetApp expand partnership to offer hybrid cloud ...financialexpress.comHCLTech Pairs NetApp Keystone With U4X to Sell Enterprise AI Storage by Consumptionstoragereview.com
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