NetApp Storage and Data Management Solutions for SharePoint 2010

As Microsoft SharePoint Server adoption continues to grow, customers are faced with the challenge of managing and storing increasing amounts of data while maintaining the flexibility and scalability required for smooth business operations. With the enhanced collaboration capabilities that Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 delivers, storage demands are expected to continue to increase. NetApp, the 2009 Microsoft Storage Solutions Partner of the year, today unveiled comprehensive storage solutions to help customers make a smooth transition to SharePoint 2010, including NetApp SnapManager 6.0 for Microsoft SharePoint 2010.

"Microsoft is excited that valued partners like NetApp are supporting SharePoint Server 2010," said Jared Spataro, director of Product Management for SharePoint at Microsoft Corp. "NetApp storage and data management solutions enable customers to easily transition data to SharePoint Server 2010 to take advantage of the features and capabilities that it provides. NetApp offers a flexible, efficient, and reliable storage infrastructure to support large and growing SharePoint Server 2010 environments."

NetApp SnapManager 6.0 provides SharePoint Server 2010 customers with policy-based management of their data, allowing them to automatically place data files based on location, size, or type in lower-cost SATA storage. This enables customers to optimize their storage resources and reduce storage costs.

SnapManager 6.0 also allows SharePoint Server 2010 customers to manage their expanded data, which can include Server Message Block (SMB) shares and Microsoft Exchange public folder data, on NetApp’s unified storage architecture for improved storage efficiencies. Management of this data is transparent, enabling customers to leverage the same SharePoint Server interface they are comfortable with to access, share, and utilize data without regard to where it is physically stored.

As the scope of content managed within SharePoint grows, SnapManager 6.0 is able to help customers manage storage requirements. SnapManager 6.0 supports Remote BLOB Storage (RBS), allowing customers to store and manage content objects outside of Microsoft SQL Server for improved scalability and flexibility. This support builds on SnapManager 5.0’s ability to manage External BLOB Storage (EBS) in SharePoint Server 2007 SP1 environments.

NetApp support for SharePoint Server 2010 also extends to Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2, the underlying database for SharePoint Server. NetApp SnapManager for SQL Server provides customers with high-availability and also helps database administrators backup and restore, as well as clone production SQL Server databases in seconds, resulting in improved application availability.

"We’re seeing a continued explosion in the amount of data that customers are storing in their Microsoft SharePoint Server environments," said Patrick Rogers, vice president of Solutions and Alliances for NetApp. "NetApp storage solutions for SharePoint Server 2010 provide customers with the scalability required to meet their growing needs while at the same time delivering industry-leading storage efficiencies. These solutions also build on our longstanding commitment with Microsoft to provide our mutual customers with solutions that deliver unmatched value, outstanding performance and a superior customer experience."

All customer pricing for offerings described in this release is available from NetApp sales and reseller partners. NetApp SnapManager 6.0 for Microsoft SharePoint 2010 will be available by August 2010.