NetApp Flashes More Storage Arrays And Upgrades Another
Storage specialist rolls out faster all-Flash, entry-level and Big-Data arrays
NetApp has unveiled two Flash storage platforms and updated a third. The company explained its strategy as aiming to offer a broad array of fast enterprise storage clients in the EF-series of all-Flash storage arrays and the E-Series of SAN arrays.
The NetApp EF550 flash array is intended for latency-sensitive data, while the E2700 array will highlight price/performance ratio for small, remote, and branch offices. Updates for the NetApp E5500 SAN array expand performance, density, and modular flexibility for data-intensive workloads.
Latent benefits
NetApp said that the EF550 would deliver a consistent sub-millisecond response time in order to accelerate latency-sensitive applications such as database, VDI, and web services.
The array performs about 400,000 input/output operations per second (IOPS) and stores up to 96 Terabytes of data. It also supports 2.5-inch, 800GB solid state disks (SSDs). Connectivity options include 16Gbit Fibre Channel, eight 6Gbit SAS (serial-attached SCSI) drives, eight 10Gbit iSCSI, or four 40Gbit InfiniBand connectors.
Its scale-up architecture reduces latency alongside remote replication to ensure that critical applications can be protected at remote sites. It also includes NetApp storage management with tuning functions, monitoring and diagnostics with proactive repair, and sub-second snapshot copies for backup and recovery.
The new E2700, with a 60-drive, 4U standard rack enclosure, is a follow up to the E2600 and provides storage for remote and branch offices. It sports faster interfaces, such as SAS connections ranging from 6Gbps to 12Gbps and its Fibre Channel boasts bandwidth throughput from 8Gbps to 16Gbps. It also offers cache options of 4GB, 8GB or 16GB.
The overhauled E5500 now includes SANtricity data replication features along with support for 10Gbps iSCSI, and 16Gbps Fibre Channel. It also has integrated NetApp AutoSupport for monitoring, and installed-base analytics for proactive operations.
George Kurian, executive vice president of product operations at NetApp, said the products unveiled recently formed part of the firm’s strategy to provide comprehensive cloud integration via the NetApp OnTap operating system.
“These solutions satisfy our customers’ needs for their multiple workloads and deployment models — either dedicated or as part of a shared infrastructure,” he said. “By expanding our EF-series, all-Flash arrays and E-series platforms we are meeting growing market demand for dense, performance-oriented architectures delivering superior performance, reliability, efficiency and scale.”