If you're building on Red Hat OpenShift, then your mission is likely the same as countless systems administrators: Provide a consistent, reliable application platform that spans from your data center to the public cloud. But as many platform teams have discovered, that seamless hybrid vision often runs into the practical hurdle of storage.

Managing persistent storage for stateful apps introduces complexity, especially when your clusters span on-premises infrastructure and cloud environments like Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS (ROSA). Different environments can mean different tooling, different processes, and more friction than you'd like.

What if you could cut through that? What if your storage layer worked the same everywhere, managed natively inside OpenShift, without extra operational overhead? 

That's not a future state anymore. It's here, thanks to NetApp's certified Red Hat OpenShift operator for Trident.

This isn't just Trident. It's Trident, automated.

You might already know Trident, NetApp's dynamic CSI provisioner for Kubernetes. It brings NetApp's ONTAP, a unified data infrastructure featuring snapshots, clones, replication, and more, to containerized workloads. The certified OpenShift operator takes a step further.

The NetApp Trident Operator is a controller that automates the entire lifecycle of the Trident CSI driver to provide persistent storage from NetApp systems.From initial deployment through ongoing upgrades, the operator acts like a systems engineer, tuned to the specifics of the OpenShift platform. Because it's Red Hat certified, you know it's been tested, vetted, and trusted to integrate securely and reliably with your clusters.

Storage options for your cluster

This isn't just about checking a box. It's about real, measurable improvements to how your team operates.

One workflow everywhere

The certified operator gives you the exact same experience whether your OpenShift cluster is on premises with NetApp's AFF or FAS systems, or running in the cloud with FSx for ONTAP. No custom YAML is required, and no environment-specific scripts. You get one declarative workflow across your hybrid estate.

Click-and-go experience

No more reading lengthy install guides, or cutting and pasting commands and hoping you haven't missed a step. It's just three steps to get started:

  1. From the OpenShift console, open the OperatorHub.
  2. Search for NetApp Trident
  3. Click Install

That's it. The operator takes it from there, following best practices, avoiding mistakes or slowdowns.

Automated lifecycle management

Upgrades? Patches? Compatibility checks? The operator takes care of those, too. When a new version of Trident is available, or your OpenShift platform evolves, the operator can manage the update process automatically. That's your Day 2 operations simplified.

Sensible storage

A hybrid cloud shouldn't mean hybrid complexity. With NetApp's certified Red Hat OpenShift operator for Trident, you can deliver enterprise-grade data services wherever your applications run with the automation and simplicity that modern platform engineering demands.

It's time to stop managing storage the hard way, and to start building with confidence. Ready to try it? Get the certified OpenShift operator for Trident in the Red Hat Ecosystem Catalog, or directly within the OperatorHub in your OpenShift cluster.

Read the official documentation to learn more.

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About the author

Shane Heroux is a Principal Engineering Partner Manager at Red Hat, working at the intersection of open technology and partner ecosystems. His first Linux install was Slackware in the mid-'90s, where he found something bigger than software: a way of building things together that actually holds up.

Since joining Red Hat in 2018, he's worked across hybrid cloud, AI, and modernization efforts, translating technical complexity into outcomes that make sense for partners and customers. He works across product, engineering, and alliance leadership to align partner capabilities with what customers are actually trying to do, helping organizations build architectures that are open, adaptable, and built to last.

His approach combines technical depth with systems thinking and a humanities instinct. Open collaboration doesn't just scale platforms; it makes the whole ecosystem more useful.

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