The Virtual Storage Guy

NetApp Takes SPECsfs2008 Benchmark To New Levels!

NetApp has published SPECsfs2008_nfs.v3 results for our new FAS6200 & FAS3200 arrays, which demonstrates the performance capabilities of these platforms are nothing short of industry leading!

SPECsfs2008 is the latest version of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation benchmark suite measuring file server throughput and response time, providing a standardized method for comparing performance across different vendor platforms. SPECsfs2008 results summarize the server's capabilities with respect to the number of operations that can be handled per second, as well as the overall latency of the operations.

SPEC is expanding to address cloud infrastructures by working with VMware to define the next generation of VMmark. I expect some of you may find interest in the next generation of VMmark as it should help architects in designing next-generation infrastrucutres.

The FAS6240 - Enterprise Class Performance

I’d like to introduce you to the FAS6240. It is our new mid-tier model in the FAS6200 enterprise platform. It is a unified architecture capable of all storage protocols, data management features, and cloud integration points.

To give you a sense of enterprise class performance I’d like to compare the FAS6240 results to the best provided by EMC obtained in a hybrid VMAX & multi-node Celerra configuration. In reviewing the results a few things truly stand out...

The FAS6240:

• Is a single system and not 4 like the EMC test-bed (comprised of 1 SAN array with 2 or 3 NAS gateways)
• Provides 172.3% of the performance capable with EMC’s SSD based solution with 488% more capacity
• Provides 140.7% of the performance capable with EMC’s FC based solution with 446% more capacity

Cisco VXI Ups the Ante

Last week NetApp rocked the industry with our most significant product launch ever. Cisco played a key role with the release of FlexPods, a validated, pre-designed, base configuration built on Cisco UCS and Nexus and NetApp FAS storage components designed to be elastic and to scale incrementally both up and out.

This week our positions are reversed.

Cisco today announced the Cisco Virtualization Experience Infrastructure (VXI), a vision that includes a comprehensive desktop virtualization reference architecture and solution spanning collaboration, borderless networking and data center technologies. The VXI design incorporates Citrix XenDesktop and VMware View to offer solutions that have been built and validated through extensive three-way collaboration between Citrix-Cisco-NetApp and VMware-Cisco-NetApp.

Gestalt IT Tech Field Day 4 at NetApp!

On Thursday, November 11th Stephen Foskett and the folks at Gestalt IT will spend the morning at NetApp as a part of their visit to Silicon Valley for Gestalt IT Tech Field Day 4! Vendors and independent thought leaders meet to exchange information and views related to the technical advancements and the role of advanced storage capabilities in virtual and cloud infrastructures.

When: Thursday, November 11, 2010: 8 a.m. - 12 p.m. PT
Where: NetApp Founder’s Theater, 495 East Java Drive, Sunnyvale, CA, Building 1. The event will also be streamed online!

Event Schedule:

• 8:00 – 8:15 a.m. PT: Dave Hitz Welcome Address and Kickoff
• 8:15 - 8:30 a.m. PT: Role of Standards-Based Benchmarks in Storage System Evaluation – Steve Daniel
• 8:30 - 8:45 a.m. PT: Fabric Attached Storage in a Direct-Attach World – Steve Daniel
• 8:45 – 9:15 a.m. PT: Bycast - Joshua Konkle
• 9:15 – 9:45 a.m. PT: Tierless Storage – Greg Kleiman
• 9:45 – 10:45 a.m. PT: ONTAP 8.0.1 Overview – Santosh Rao
• 10:45 - 12:00 p.m. PT: Unified Cloud Architectures, FlexPod, & SMT - Vaughn Stewart, Ravi Neelakant from VMware & Thomas Scheibe of Cisco

This event will allow you to learn more about a number of the technologies and solutions shared during our Future Ready event including FlexPod! The event will include live streaming video, blogging, and tweets, so you can interact with the delegates during the event.

• Follow the event with our official Tech Field Day 4: Live Stream
• Watch video on Vimeo and YouTube
• See photos on Flickr
• Subscribe to the Roundtable Podcast on iTunes
• Join the Facebook Group or LinkedIn Group

Join us wont you? I promise you sharing our solutions and technologies with industry experts like the delegate from Gestalt IT is always a rewarding experience.

For more information go to: http://gestaltit.com/field-day/2010-san-jose/

Announcing FlexPod for VMware from Cisco & NetApp

Today we held our ‘Future Ready’ event, which was the largest product launch in the history of NetApp. This launch was so extensive it included updates to three quarters of our portfolio and introduced a slew of net new features, products, and solutions.

Am I excited? That’s an understatement!

Current global economic conditions are reshaping business and success is becoming increasingly dependent on the ability of IT to transition to a flexible and efficient shared IT infrastructure that enables IT and accelerate business. NetApp is innovating to meet these challenges and id like to highlight just a few of the key announcements included in today's launch!

• High End FAS & vSeries 6200 platforms: Defining high-end performance


• Mid Range FAS & vSeries 3200 platforms: Delivering outstanding value and efficiency
• New disk drives & shelves: Increasing efficiency and performance via a 2.5” form factor and the introduction of SSD
• Data ONTAP 8.0.1: Includes delivers support for VAAI & inline data compression (to name just a few highlights)


• Unified Connect 10 GbE CNAs: Providing 'one wire' for all I/O and workloads
• OnCommand Management: Software for managing shared IT Infrastructures


• FlexPod for VMware: Introduces a new enterprise data center solution that is pre-sized and integrates NetApp, Cisco, and VMware technologies to help customers deploy shared IT infrastructures more efficiently and effectively

There’s so much content to dig into and share that you should expect a significant number of posts from many at NetApp over the next few days. Per my norm, I will share with you details on a number of these technologies specifically as the pertain to virtual and cloud infrastructures starting with FlexPod.

Cisco and NetApp Announce FlexPod for VMware

As a part of Today’s Future Ready Launch we announced FlexPod for VMware, a infrastructure designed to enhance and accelerate the adoption of private and public cloud. FlexPod was developed in partnership with Cisco, NetApp and VMware and were modeled after the infrastructures delivering services for the world’s largest cloud service providers.