NetApp SolidFire All-Flash System With Cisco Servers Nexus Switching

Cisco Systems, Inc. and NetApp, Inc. expanded the portfolio of the growing integrated infrastructure and certified reference systems with a new offering that is designed for emerging business challenges.
 
The new FlexPod SF solution offers an infrastructure for the data-intensive scale-out workloads that are critical to digital transformation. It features NetApp SolidFire all-flash, scale-out, cloud-connected storage, Cisco Unified Computing System (Cisco UCS) B-Series servers, and Cisco Nexus switching.

The new solution can support enterprise and emerging architectures with precise storage capacity and performance tailored to the needs of individual tenants in multitenant environments.
 
“Enterprise IT organizations face a dual challenge; they have to maximize performance and value from existing mission-critical workloads while adopting new technologies that can speed digital transformation,” said Eric Sheppard, research director, IDC. “The adoption of private cloud solutions offers an approach that helps them more easily transition to the future. FlexPod SF is a good example of an architecture that securely and seamlessly delivers workloads across cloud environments at scale and at cost.“
 
New Features Support Fast-Paced Cloud Environments
The new solution extends the FlexPod technology portfolio that has been deployed by over 8,400 global customers and 1,100 partners that serve 100 countries. Representing over 250 years of combined engineering experience, the portfolio has generated a total of $8 billion in combined revenue across Cisco and NetApp to date.
 
The new solution offers:
• High-end predictable performance. Reliably run hundreds of applications on a single platform with guaranteed SLAs to independently set capacity and QoS at minimum, maximum, or burst performance levels across the entire infrastructure. FlexPod SF is built on UCS, which has over 120 world record benchmarks, combined with the dedicated performance of SolidFire storage. SolidFire offers the ability to remove 93% of storage performance issues and remove ‘noisy neighbors’ with SolidFire QoS.
• Programmable seamlessly meet business demands with SolidFire software-defined architecture, simplified management, and scale by automating every aspect of provisioning, management, and reporting with 100% programmable SolidFire storage and UCS B-Series servers. UCS compute offers up to 56% faster time to market and the ability to deliver up to 59% more business applications to end users. SolidFire storage also enables VM deployment up to five times faster and provides granular scale as you grow capabilities with independent storage nodes.
• Scale-out enable customers to align business expenses with business growth by reducing initial capital expenditures. This flexible solution delivers controlled performance at lower operating costs by allowing customers to buy only as much compute and storage as they need, when they need it. The FlexPod family of solutions delivers savings of up to 46% in lower IT infrastructure costs. It also offers cost savings through infrastructure consolidation, automation, and rapid application delivery.

“At Safelite, a leading provider of vehicle glass repair and replacement services, we serve up to 6 million customers every year. To continue offering our customers the best service possible, we needed a simple, highly scalable solution that would offer a superior customer experience and support our continued growth,” said Matthew Coy, VP, IT, Safelite Group. “The high-performance compute and next-generation storage of FlexPod SF provided us a strong foundation for our state-of-the-art claims processing center.“
 
“We’ve had great success in leveraging FlexPod to help our customers address their business requirements and achieve operational efficiency, cost savings, and overall success,” said Jerry McIntosh, SVP, advanced technology, ePlus, Inc. “We’re excited for the opportunity to expand our reach to cloud and virtualization buyers with FlexPod SF.”
 
“To help businesses capitalize on their digital transformation, IT needs a new kind of cloud infrastructure that is simple, agile, and performs predictably as application requirements rapidly change,” said Satinder Sethi, VP, data center solutions, Cisco. “FlexPod SF offers a prevalidated, next-generation software-defined, converged architecture solution that customers can deploy with confidence to meet their transformational goals.”
 
“Data is at the heart of business success in the digital era. Together, Cisco and NetApp offer a family of solutions that give organizations access to the full value of their data for competitive advantage,” said Brett Roscoe, VP, products, solutions, and services marketing, NetApp. “FlexPod SF helps customers maximize that value with a new kind of converged infrastructure that easily scales, performs predictably, and offers better economics.”