NetApp Revamps Storage Hardware, Software Products

NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP) has revamped its entire storage product line – from arrays to OS – to take on the likes of EMC (NYSE: EMC) and HP (NYSE: HPQ) in the midrange and high-end storage markets. The new products include six new models in its mid-range and high-end FAS and V series disk arrays, validated configurations from its partnership with Cisco and VMware, a new release of the Data ONTAP operating system, a unified management platform, SAS-based disk shelves and support for solid-state disk (SSD) drives. Sister site InfoStor has the story.

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“Billing it as ‘the biggest launch in the company’s history,’ NetApp introduced new products ranging from high-end disk arrays to management software. The company’s mantra seemed to be ‘shared IT infrastructure.’

“‘IT organizations don’t want more silos; they want a shared IT infrastructure with unification of storage,’ says Patrick Rogers, NetApp’s vice president of solutions and alliances.

“At the high end of its product line, NetApp introduced the FAS6200 series, including the FAS6210 (up to 2.4PB, 1,200 drives, 3TB of Flash Cache), FAS6240 (2.9PB, 1,440 drives, 6TB of Flash Cache) and FAS6280 (2.9PB, 1,440 drives, 8TB of Flash Cache). The company claims 2X the performance over previous generation systems via technologies such as multi-core processors, higher-capacity flash memory and multi-threading in the new release of the Data ONTAP software. (Flash Cache is NetApp’s NAND-based controller read cache.)

“In its mid-range lineup, NetApp introduced the FAS3210 (up to 480TB, 240 drives, 512GB of Flash Cache), FAS3240 (1.2PB, 600 drives, 1TB of Flash Cache) and FAS3270 (1.9PB, 960 drives, 2TB of Flash Cache). The new FAS3200 series models have 50% more I/O slots than their corresponding predecessors.

“The latest release of NetApp’s Data ONTAP operating system – 8.0.1 -- includes a number of new features, including [native data compression, which can be used in conjunction with NetApp’s data deduplication software, a Transparent Data Mobility feature, Unified Connect technology, and performance enhancements in multi-threading and support for multi-core processors.]

“NetApp also introduced pre-sized, validated configurations based on its partnership with VMware and Cisco.”

For more, read "NetApp Overhauls Product Line, From Arrays to OS" at InfoStor.

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