{"slug": "netapp-buys-jetstream-software-for-its-azure-focussed-vmware-dr-as-a-service", "title": "NetApp buys JetStream Software for its Azure-focussed VMware DR-as-a-Service offering", "summary": "NetApp is acquiring JetStream Software, a VMware DRaaS supplier, to enhance its disaster recovery and VM migration capabilities, particularly for Azure-focused environments. The acquisition follows NetApp's purchase of Data Pelago in July and will enable customers to protect VMware environments on any storage platform and recover them on NetApp first-party storage like Azure NetApp Files. JetStream, founded in 2017 by Tom Critser, Serge Shats, and Pavan Pamula, has raised approximately $11.5 million and has been self-funding since 2019.", "body_md": "# NetApp buys JetStream Software for its Azure-focussed VMware DR-as-a-Service offering\n\n[NetApp](https://www.blocksandfiles.com/block/2026/06/29/cgi-picks-netapp-as-its-preferred-storage-kid-on-the-block/5263753) is acquiring VMware DRaaS supplier [JetStream Software](https://jetstreamsoft.com/) for its disaster recovery and VM migration capabilities.\n\nThis follows on from NetApp buying [Data Pelago](https://www.blocksandfiles.com/ai-ml/2026/07/17/netapp-buys-datapelago-to-become-full-stack-ai-data-infrastructure-provider/5274250), with its Nucleus Universal Data Processing Engine (UDPE) accelerating heterogeneous compute for data analytics and GenAI models, in July. NetApp says that, by adding JetStream’s technology to its portfolio, customers will be able to protect VMware environments running on virtually any storage platform and recover them on NetApp first-party storage offerings such as Azure NetApp Files.\n\nGeorge Kurian, NetApp’s CEO, said: “Data has become the foundation for business growth, AI innovation, and operational continuity. As customers look to unlock greater value from their data while strengthening protection against disruption, bringing JetStream into NetApp expands our ability to help keep their data secure, available, and ready for what comes next. This acquisition further positions NetApp as a leader in enterprise resilience and data protection.”\n\nJetStream is headquartered in San Jose, where NetApp is also headquartered, and has a Bangalore subsidiary. It was started up in October 2017 by:\n\nCo-founder and CEO Tom Critser, ex-GM of Cloud Data Center Solutions at SanDisk, 2012 - 2017, and VP w-w sales and business development at FlashSoft 2010 - 2012, with a similar role at RNA before that.\n\nCo-founder and CTO Serge Shats, ex-SanDisk CTO. It acquired FlashSoft where Shats was the CTO. He was at Virsto as lead architect before that, and a SW architect at Veritas from 1999 to 2006.\n\nFounding VP of Engineering Pavan Pamula, who posted on LinkedIn “Convinced Western Digital to Spinoff our group and founded JetStream software with an initial seed investment from Western Digital.” Pamula was ex-Director of Engineering at WD and SanDisk before that. His LinkedIn entry says JetStream started in December 2016.\n\nThey raised c$3.8 million in a seed round - Pamula says from WD - at the end of 2017, and then $7.7 million in an A-round in 2019, making $11.5 million in total, although Pitchbook says the total is c$12.7 million. JetStream has been self-funding since then. Early customers included MSPS and telcos, and then enterprises piled in as well. Its customer count has not been revealed but we note that JetStream has been self-funding since the 2019 A-round and that must mean customer revenues have been coming in.\n\nOther JetStream execs include VP w-w Sales Tom Matson, who was a Director, Software Solution Sales, at SanDisk from 2012 to 2017, overlapping with Critser and Shats. LinkedIn lists around 30 employees.\n\nJetStream’s software is a DRaaS offering that continually protects primary site VMware vSphere e - VAIO to either Azure Blob storage, S3-compatible stores - Cloudian for example, or, with more expense, to Azure NetApp files when faster failover and/or larger amounts of data have to be recovered. The RTO can be managed down to near zero.\n\nThe primary site can be on-premises or running in Microsoft’s Azure VM Solution (AVS). If it crashes, then the vSphere environment fails over to an on-premises site, an Azure VM Solution facility, or other public clouds, with the stored VMs and their data (compute + runtime storage) rehydrated into the target environment.\n\nThe source and failed over vCenters have JetStream API-based management and administration. There is a failback facility as well for use when the primary site is recovered.\n\nJetStreamDR is an alternative to VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM), which replicates data to a warm site and not continuously. JetStream replicates to an, in effect, cold data store, and then rehydrates to a target site when failover is needed, saving cost. The JetStream software can support hundreds and even thousands of VMs.\n\nNetApp sees JetStream as a revenue strengthener for its public cloud offerings. Pravjit Tiwana, SVP and GM, Cloud Storage and Services at NetApp, said: “JetStream helps customers start with disaster recovery and seamlessly evolve to production in the cloud. Together, we’re making our cloud offerings within hyperscalers the easiest destination for enterprise VMware workloads.”\n\nThe company noted JetStream complements NetApp’s existing SnapMirror technology, which remains the preferred replication solution for NetApp environments. The combined portfolio enables NetApp to protect both existing NetApp deployments, and the much broader VMware installed base running on third-party storage.\n\nThe acquisition terms were not revealed.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/netapp-buys-jetstream-software-for-its-azure-focussed-vmware-dr-as-a-service", "canonical_source": "https://www.blocksandfiles.com/public-cloud/2026/08/06/netapp-buys-jetstream-software-for-its-azure-focussed-vmware-dr-as-a-service-offering/5284268", "published_at": "2026-08-06 17:37:26+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-09 09:31:16.993711+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-infrastructure"], "entities": ["NetApp", "JetStream Software", "Data Pelago", "Azure NetApp Files", "George Kurian", "Tom Critser", "Serge Shats", "Pavan Pamula"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/netapp-buys-jetstream-software-for-its-azure-focussed-vmware-dr-as-a-service", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/netapp-buys-jetstream-software-for-its-azure-focussed-vmware-dr-as-a-service.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/netapp-buys-jetstream-software-for-its-azure-focussed-vmware-dr-as-a-service.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/netapp-buys-jetstream-software-for-its-azure-focussed-vmware-dr-as-a-service.jsonld"}}