NetApp Delivers Enhanced Enterprise-Grade All-Flash Storage FAS

NetApp, Inc. announced updates to its All Flash FAS (AFF) array series that drive down the cost of flash for mainstream data center applications and reduce capacity requirements by as much as 30:1 ⁽¹⁾.

NetApp FAS8020

New software efficiency technology and higher capacity drives make it possible for company’s customers to get the performance of flash at the price of disk. The firm extended its 3X performance guarantee, first announced in the United States, to customers in more than twenty AsiaPac and European countries. The company added select All Flash FlexPod models to the guarantee program as well.

NetApp FAS8080EX

“The flash market is developing quickly,” said Tim Stammers, lead analyst, storage, 451 Research. “Performance of flash has always been dramatic versus disk, but enterprise management and lower prices are critical to take flash into mainstream applications.“

The AFF series delivers enterprise-grade benefits that make all-flash systems ready for broad deployment. It is all-flash system support data management across flash, disk and cloud resources. This capability makes AFF arrays for customers who want to boost performance in their traditional data centers while mapping out their move to a hybrid cloud model.

“VMware and NetApp continue to empower organizations to realize great speed, flexibility and reliability in their virtual environments,” said Mark Lohmeyer, VP, product management and marketing, cloud platform business unit, Vmware, Inc. “NetApp AFF with VMware vCenter Server enables organizations to quickly automate and centralize control of their virtual infrastructure. Additionally, NetApp flash paired with vSphere Virtual Volumes enables customers to streamline storage operation, while vSphere API for Storage Awareness provides a single unified control plane for vSphere storage.”

Customers can order AFF systems in standalone configurations and in FlexPod converged infrastructure validated designs. AFF offers company’s channel partners an easy way to help customers transition to hybrid cloud at their own pace, without the risk of investing in unproven flash platforms.

Announcement highlights include:

Flash for price of disk. AFF systems support 3.8TB solid state drives, making the company one of the early adopters of this form factor. When combined with company’s storage efficiency technologies, customers realize a lower $/GB cost, essentially giving them the performance of flash for the price of disk ⁽²⁾.
Release of clustered Data ONTAP software, an storage OS that supports data movement across flash, disk and cloud resources. This version offers customers:

Inline dedupe. The firm offers inline deduplication capabilities for AFF, which complement existing inline compression, post processing deduplication, and other storage efficiency technologies. These provide more effective use and extend the life of flash media, especially for customers with VDI workloads. In storage test scenarios, the company has demonstrated the ability to reduce capacity requirements by as much as 30:1, enabling customers to transition to flash using less storage and driving down overall cost.
Copy-free transition. This capability allows customers to shift to clustered Data ONTAP with in-place data conversion. Doing so enables an transition to the onramp for Data Fabric and company’s advanced data protection solutions for hybrid cloud.

Extension of 3X performance guarantee. The company has extended to additional countries its guarantee of 3X increase in enterprise database performance, compared to that of traditional, non-flash disk-based. Selected All Flash FlexPod systems are also included in the program, which is available in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Germany, the UK, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Israel, Sweden, Japan, Australia, India, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

In addition, customers and company’s partners can take advantage of the extended support, no-risk try-and buy, and free controller upgrade programs introduced earlier this year. Professional services, delivered by the firm or its partners, help users identify workloads that are best served by all-flash systems, as well as identify bottlenecks in users’ existing environments.

“New efficiency innovations in our AFF line help customers realize a high return on their flash investments, making it an ideal time to increase use of flash in the core data center,” said Lee Caswell, VP, product, solutions and services marketing, NetApp. “Customers can count on NetApp for affordable, enterprise-grade all-flash systems that are ready for broad deployment, with world-class performance and the industry’s best data management capabilities in a single solution.“

⁽¹⁾ Technical Report 4428, NetApp All Flash FAS Solution for VMware Horizon 6 and vSphere Virtual Volumes,
⁽²⁾ Statement refers to the cost of traditional high-performance disk versus NetApp managed flash, as measured by $/GB capacity.