New NetApp System Manager, Free of Charge

NetApp announced that UZ Leuven has greatly reduced costs and increased productivity thanks to the combination of NetApp’ storage efficiency technologies and newly enhanced manageability software. To further help customers such as UZ Leuven receive additional storage efficiency benefits, NetApp also introduced enhancements to its manageability software suite and new software packs and bundles.

UZ Leuven, a NetApp customer since 2000 and one of the largest healthcare providers in Europe, leveraged a wide range of NetApp storage efficiency technologies across several IT functions, including server virtualization, e-mail archiving, file sharing, and database management. As a result, UZ Leuven streamlined its business operations while saving valuable time and money. For example, UZ Leuven leveraged deduplication technology within its NetApp MetroCluster storage system to reduce data storage requirements by as much as 80% in its virtual server environment. Combined with NetApp SnapMirror, deduplication helped UZ Leuven dramatically reduce the amount of disk space required for backup, from 4.2 terabytes to 800 gigabytes.

UZ Leuven also leveraged NetApp’s manageability software to help maximize its storage efficiency gains. Operations Manager provided UZ Leuven with automated, centralized management of its storage infrastructure while Protection Manager allowed UZ Leuven to automate backup processes and leverage advanced data protection technologies such as SnapMirror. This combination increased storage utilization while reducing manual effort and management time, allowing UZ Leuven to successfully manage a larger storage environment with fewer people.

"We needed a storage system that provided us with both performance and efficiency gains," said Reinoud Reynders, IT manager for Infrastructure and Operations for UZ Leuven. "We have been thrilled with our NetApp infrastructure and management solutions and have recognized a wealth of cost and time savings. NetApp has a wide variety of storage efficiency technologies that clearly save operational time and costs as well as save capital costs by allowing us to store more and more data with our existing infrastructure."

Enhanced Manageability Software and New Software Packs and Bundles
NetApp also announced System Manager to expand its manageability software offerings with a solution that enables storage experts and non-storage experts to easily leverage NetApp’s proven storage efficiency technologies. System Manager, which is free of charge, provides customers with out-of-the-box management of their FAS2000 and FAS3000 storage systems. System Manager is a Microsoft Windows-based tool that provides an easy-to-use graphical user interface (GUI) that automates common device management tasks and supports NetApp storage efficiency technologies like deduplication and thin provisioning to achieve greater cost savings and performance improvements.

Also, NetApp’s existing manageability products, which include Operations Manager, Protection Manager, and Provisioning Manager, now support a wider range of NetApp storage efficiency features such as deduplication, thin provisioning, and Snapshot copies. As a result, customers managing a large number of NetApp systems can automatically configure and deploy different storage efficiency technologies across their entire enterprise environment. By automating these complex operational processes, customers can save both time and money.

Furthermore, the new NetApp software packs and NetApp Select software bundles enable customers to realize the full savings that storage efficiency can deliver. Repackaging over 30 existing products into a small number of bundles, the new packs and bundles streamline the ordering process for both customers and partners and can provide substantial cost savings when compared to purchasing products individually. The NetApp Select software bundles package protocol support along with several of the software packs into one offering.

"NetApp strives to empower customers with the storage efficiency tools necessary to improve business operations and drive down costs," said Patrick Rogers, vice president of Solutions Marketing at NetApp. "This notion of efficiency also extends to the actual cost and ordering process, which should be as simple and cost-effective as possible. With the latest enhancements to our software manageability product suite along with the new software packs and software bundles, we are addressing customer needs for a more simplified and streamlined experience."

Pricing and Availability
System Manager is available, at no additional cost, to NetApp customers via the NetApp Web site. Customer pricing for NetApp software packs, which include the Foundation Pack, Protection Pack, Application Pack, Server Pack, and Advanced Pack, and are available only to FAS2000 customers, is available from NetApp sales or reseller partners. Customer pricing for NetApp Select software bundles, which include the Windows Bundle, Server Virtualization Bundle, and Complete Bundle, and are available only to FAS2000 and FAS/V3100 customers, is available from reseller partners. All software packs and bundles are available immediately. The new versions of Operations Manager, Provisioning Manager, and Protection Manager will be available in July 2009.