Verizon and NetApp are planning to provide the storage vendor's Data OnTap as a virtual storage appliance to customers of Verizon's new Infrastructure-as-a-Service cloud.

Data OnTap is part of a software-defined infrastructure management layer that adds efficiency, data protection and manageability on top of Verizon's cloud infrastructure, according to NetApp. Because the software abstracts physical storage into a set of virtual machines, it will provide seamless data management across multiple clouds, the storage giant said.

John Considine, CTO of Verizon's data center services business Terremark, said this was the first of many strategic partnerships the company was planning to strike as it builds an ecosystem of services that will run on top of its cloud infrastructure.

“Teaming with NetApp reinforces our commitment to revolutionize how cloud-based solutions are delivered and will serve as a complement to traditional on-premises, hardware-based storage models,” he said. “As more enterprises embrace the cloud, businesses both large and small will look to virtualization for greater functionality to enhance business operations.”

Verizon unveiled its new public cloud services earlier this month. Public beta of the compute and storage services is expected to launch in the fourth quarter, the company said.

The infrastructure underpinning the new services consists of SeaMicro servers by AMD.