Is NetApp Missing from your Datacenter?

On behalf of NetApp, I’m writing to you with a simple proposition:

For your next storage purchase, you should consider NetApp.

Things move at a fast, if not exponential pace in the data center. The advent of virtual infrastructures and cloud computing has introduced a new set of requirements that redefined the value proposition of storage arrays within a cloud infrastructure stack.

The storage array that you ultimately select is responsible for maintaining most (if not all) of your organization’s intellectual property. This means that the success of your organization is dependent on the infrastructure that supports it and is tied to you ability to affect change in the quality of the storage you introduce.

Gone are the days when a shared storage platform simply provided high performance and data availability for a select set of business critical applications. Today, arrays MUST serve all of the data in the data center with greater than five (5) 9’s of availability while bringing to bear key enabling technologies such as: storage efficiency, data mobility, disaster resilience, continuous data protection, security and many, many more. Oh, did I mention that all this is predicated on a solution that must be repeatable, operationally consistent, non-disruptive, easy to manage, and able to grow with you and your business without adding unnecessary burdens to the adoption process?

What I have just articulated are array-specific requirements I have seen across the board – whether you are a small to medium business, a medium to lower-end enterprise, or a full on enterprise class customer. In every customer engagement that I have, these are always topics of conversation, and to you my fellow reader, I can only hope that many of these requirements are ringing true in your mind.

Now, if you do have a traditional storage array, then your existing vendor is likely a large and successful company with a long history of delivering big-iron solutions. Ideally, they have been there for you through the time of mainframes and open system through today’s emerging virtualization technologies, but you should ask yourself: “are they still offering a multitude of platforms under one banner, each offering a unique a specially tailored feature-set to address some portion of you virtual datacenter needs and ultimately your organization’s requirements?”

If you answered “no”, then let me thank you for being a NetApp customer ☺, otherwise, I encourage you to read on.

If you are open to new possibilities to extend your datacenter capabilities, especially for virtualization initiatives, or haven’t taken a closer look at NetApp’s technologies recently, then I’d like to offer you some compelling reasons as to why you should.

My Stake in the Ground

For the last 18 months, NetApp has out-paced any other storage vendor in terms of gaining market share in the shared virtual infrastructure space. NetApp is one of the fastest growing vendors in the storage industry through sheer efficiency in execution, which nets to huge benefits for our customers. I will even go on to say that NetApp is the innovation leader for shared, virtualized IT infrastructures, successful in our abilities to deliver efficient, flexible and easy to use solutions for your current and next generation datacenters needs.

These are bold claims and presented very passionately. What can I say… I get very excited about the opportunities that virtualization continues to introduce to our industry and I want nothing more than to arm you with the solutions that enable you to stop focusing on which nerd-knobs do I need to turn on what kind of storage array running which protocol over what kind of wire through how many different hosts and software layer just so I can get to the end game – solving a business challenge in the most efficient and future proof manner possible. My friends, to start that answer, lets look at the value of a truly unified storage infrastructure.

The Value of Unified Platforms

The current state of storage vendors offering a multitude of storage platforms all targeted at serving virtualization workloads stands in stark contrast to the unified direction set by virtualization leaders such as Cisco, VMware and NetApp.

When you deploy virtualization technologies, such as VMware vSphere, on a NetApp Fabric-Attached Storage (FAS) array and compare the solution to an equivalent EMC storage configuration (based on Symmnetrix DMX/VMAX, CLARiiON, Celerra, VNX, VNXe, Iomega, Isilion and so on), you’ll notice a meaningful difference: NetApp’s approach to providing a unified architecture is in lock step with the vision of industry leaders and their offerings – for example, VMware with ESXi and Cisco with UCS.

At NetApp, we view hardware as merely a means to scale performance. You win with unified platforms that enable operational and architectural standardization across the network, server and storage layers. When you can standardize at each layer, you are empowered to spend more energy on solving business challenges. NetApp accomplishes this by enabling virtualization architects to design standardized configurations based on the scale of installation, thus providing consistency in operations whether the installation targets the core datacenter, remote office, or even the smallest of installations.

By smallest of installations, did you know that NetApp is the only storage vendor that ships a production workload capable software-based virtual storage appliance (VSA), and the VSA ships with the same functionality and management toolset as found in our Enterprise-class storage arrays? This sums up the value of a unified platform where hardware or virtual hardware is merely a means to scale.

Let me share with you the eight (8) major categories that NetApp excels in and why if NetApp is missing from your datacenter I’d like you to continue reading. I believe it starts with efficiencies, and I assert that NetApp offers unmatched savings beginning at the storage layer.

Unmatched Storage Savings

NetApp storage arrays provide unmatched storage savings targeted at reducing the requirements of your production dataset. We are the only vendor delivering block level deduplication for any type of data over any type of connection, be it SAN or NAS. Pause for a second and let that sink in – block level deduplication, because this results in pervasive savings in your storage requirements across every datacenter component: business continuity, disaster resilience, production-level operations, test and dev, etc.

Others may tell you that storage savings technologies are not for production use and are better served with backup datasets. Hey, if continually buying additional storage, or in the very least – more than you really need, is how you want to spend your ever scrutinized capital budget I’ll step back. Otherwise, consider the explosive data growth rates that are being forecasted by the likes of IDC, Gartner, ESG and others and ask yourself how your current or dogmatic storage acquisition strategy will keep up as that capital budget heads in the opposite direction.

Instead, I say “dedupe that production dataset!” and I will assure you that your performance will not be limited in anyway, rather you will experience rolling savings that are pervasive and occur throughout the infrastructure. Not only do you have my guarantee, but NetApp’s as well.

NetApp guarantees storage savings of at least 50% for VMware environments; yet I’d suggest this guarantee is more than conservative. Many of our customers are achieving storage savings in the 60% to 70% range for virtual servers and even greater than 98% with virtual desktops. So maybe the 50% guarantee needs to be revisited since it isn’t much of a challenge for us to achieve. In fact, with over 187,000 systems deployed with data deduplication enabled, I can personally assure you that your experience on NetApp will blow your mind.

I’m confident that your legacy vendor likely disputes my claims and NetApp’s capabilities, and they should. That’s right, they have a lot to lose – your business and the TBs or PBs of storage that needs to go with their solutions because they fundamentally lack these efficiencies. Let me say it differently – if your vendor cannot offer block level data deduplication on all of their platforms and for both SAN and NAS, then how can they honestly make claims of superior storage savings – what’s worse, how can they really be taking care of your infrastructure needs?

Purpose-Built for Data Protection

NetApp arrays offer the most advanced form of data protection using our RAID-DP technology. RAID-DP provides best in class capabilities in the areas of performance, resiliency and cost. It out performs and better protects data than using traditional RAID configurations such as RAID-10 and with an overhead of only 12.5%, it is less expensive than RAID-5.

 

With NetApp, virtualization architects don’t have to make blind decisions around which type of RAID configuration should be deployed for each application; instead, RAID-DP delivers architectural simplicity via a “set-it and forget-it” approach that is consistent across the storage portfolio.

Did you know that NetApp and VMware performance engineering have demonstrated the significant performance impacts and poor optimizations that the RAID configurations offered in traditional storage arrays (even in their best practice guides) have in virtualized environments – check out NetApp’s TR-3856.

Next Generation Performance

NetApp’s storage controllers are built with the latest Intel processors and industry leading chipsets, but frankly, all array vendors use the same hardware in their arrays. That’s right, I just said that, but remember what I said earlier… at NetApp, the value is not in the iron; it’s in our logic. And that is what separates us from traditional storage arrays.

NetApp has extended our data deduplication capabilities and is the ONLY vendor that provides dedupe-aware storage array cache (and data replication)! Our caching is modularly expandable and provides dynamic virtual storage tiering capabilities, which allows our arrays to out perform traditional storage by as much as 50%!

Recall TR-3856? NetApp outperforms traditional storage arrays while being configured with half the number of disk drives and providing greater data protection! Don’t just take my word for it – VMware certified the results!

Unparalleled Simplicity

In this industry, the luxury of being a specialist is ebbing and the generalist is coming to the forefront. Now the focus for the administrator stretches the gambit of the infrastructure stack. This means that simplicity is the gateway to a successful staff with the capability to operate efficiently within the infrastructure stack and enabled with a common toolset who can solve business challenges.

Simplicity was first introduced in my description of our unified architecture. Remember that the value is not in iron that makes up our storage arrays – the array is just a means to provide you with a mechanism to scale to match your performance needs. The value really lies in the operating environment that drives it – we refer to that as ONTAP and I introduced some of its features in the previous section around data deduplication and purpose-built data protection. Because of these design considerations, NetApp can offer simpler ways to manage the storage across the entire array portfolio.

With our elegant system’s Manager GUI, an administrator can manage the entire NetApp storage portfolio: from the VSA to the Enterprise-class FAS6280. The benefits of this approach are immediate savings to both the length of the learning curve and the cost of training required to ensure your company is staffed with expert-level skills. I would hope that realize that these are measureable savings to both your OPEX and CAPEX.

Infrastructure Integration

With the emergence of the cloud architecture, there is an every increasing need too coordinate the functionality of storage and data management with the rest of the infrastructure stack. NetApp has led the way with unmatched points of integration with VMware through our unified vCenter plug-in the Virtual Storage Console (VSC).

No other vendor can match our capabilities in ensuring performance and reliability, provisioning storage, VMs, and desktop pools, policy driven backups with integrated DR, and more! While others are counting and touting their points of integration, their math is a product of the combined capabilities of seven platforms.

That's right, our smallest FAS2020 array has more points of integration with VMware than a Celerra, CLARiiON, or Symmmetrix and those integration points are ubiquitous across our entire storage portfolio!

NetApp’s OpenAPI program provides systems management capabilities with points of integration with solutions and technologies from Citrix, Microsoft, Cisco, BMC, CommVault, Syncsort, Symantec, IBM, NuScale, Gale Technologies, DynamicOps, and many, many more!

What is clear is that the intelligent storage arrays allow for enhanced solutions through the means of hardware acceleration, I/O offloading and enhanced data mobility. Whether you are looking for hardware accelerated virtual desktop clones, unified business continuance solutions (backup and disaster recovery in a single process) or self-service storage and compute resources, no other storage vendor can meet the scale and capabilities of our portfolio.

Now I’m sure your legacy vendor is making bold claims in terms of counting points of integration, which quite frankly is silly. Why you might ask, well for a product boutique that comprises eight (8) different storage platforms, five (5) forms of replication, different back solutions (hardware/software), etc. then they will inevitably have a large number of integration points. Note to the reader – to get all of the integration points that they highlight implies that you are willing to buy all of their products (bit of a bait and switch if you ask me).

The real question you should be asking yourself is why would someone make so many different tools that have similar yet different capabilities? You deserve nothing less than an concerted effort to provide points of integration targeted at making your life easier and your organization more fluid in the way the infrastructure stack works for it (why let the tail wag the dog).

Open and Valuable Reference Content

The acquisition of a new storage array is a significant financial commitment. With an investment that may range anywhere from tens of thousands to millions of dollars, you should are entitled to far and accurate product information before making that purchase.

In an effort to be as open and transparent about the capabilities of our arrays, NetApp only uses real world configurations when participating in benchmark submissions like the industry standard SPECsfs. You won’t find any old school tactics (short stroking disk drives, disabling data protection to optimize results, etc.) that legacy storage vendors like to use to instill confidence in the performance of their platform – in fact, doing so is nothing shy of a disservice to you as the buyer.

Industry Leading Customer Support

With recognition and awards like Aberdeen Group’s Industry Achievement Award for Service Excellence and Service and Support Professionals Association’s STAR Award, NetApp’s customer support has set the bar for delivering customer service.

We work our fingers to the bone each and every day to ensure your support experience will remain the best!

Great Partner Ecosystem

NetApp’s has industry-leading partner who provide unmatched solutions, services and support. Our partners invest heavily in training and support and take a pledge to deliver theses as organic extensions to NetApp.

Consider FlexPod for VMware; the preconfigured and validated cloud architecture from Cisco & NetApp. Since its inception, FlexPod has always been a solution for, and enhanced by, our partners. FlexPod allows our partners to demonstrate their cloud expertise in conjunction with intimate knowledge of their customer’s datacenter(s) to accelerate the adoption f cloud computing and virtualization.

In Closing

I could go on at length as to why we think NetApp offers customers a better approach when it comes to deploying and operating a virtual infrastructure, and I’d be happy to if you’d like to speak further.

This blog contains a number of detailed comparisons of specific software features, performance results, integration points, etc. I encourage you to scour it for all of the details that you’d like to dig into as you consider how to take your datacenter to the next level.

The storage industry is highly competitive and there are a lot of solid vendors providing reliable storage products for you to consider, including your legacy storage provider. I’m sure they are fighting valiantly to convince you they are ideally suited to meet your future needs. You’ve used their products, are they stepping up to the plate and delivering in all of the areas that you need them to? I’ve stated that NetApp is unmatched in our ability to provide you with storage efficiency, data mobility, security, operational standardization and simplicity.

NetApp is the ideal storage platform for virtual and cloud architectures, and if you’d be kind enough to meet with us or one of our partners, we think you’ll find the benefits very compelling.

I’d like to thank Chuck for the inspiration to write this letter. Recently Chuck chose to speak to our customers in an effort to convince them to consider storage solutions that are just now attempting to catch up to where we've been driving since day one. ☺

Comments

[John]

To pick on one point, although this should set an expectation for the rest of the post. You were no where near being first with a production ready VSA, it's complete bunk, you're not even on the VMware compatibility matrix with a VSA, can't see your partner Fujitsu there either.

[Vaughn Stewart]

@John

Thanks for the comment, I admit the following paragraph could have been written with more clarity.

Thus I revised the original content from:

By smallest of installations, did you know that NetApp is the only storage vendor that ships a production workload capable software-based virtual storage appliance (VSA)? Oh, and keep in mind that the VSA comes with the same functionality and management toolset as found in our Enterprise-class storage arrays.

To:

"By smallest of installations, did you know that NetApp is the only storage vendor that ships a production workload capable software-based virtual storage appliance (VSA), and the VSA ships with the same functionality and management toolset as found in our Enterprise-class storage arrays?"

I believe the revised section best communicates the point I was trying to communicate.

Thanks for the feedback.

[Keith]

Good blog Vaughn. I'll share this in the morning for some training with my reps.

[John]

Hi Vaughn,

I don't have a problem with the grammar, it's the use of the word ONLY.

The original point was, and still is, that you aren't the only storage vendor shipping a production workload capable software-based (VSA)as you state.

Far from it, you were late to the party, don't ship it yourselves as it's through an OEM agreement and it's not even qualified on the VMware HCL. FalconStor, HP LeftHand and StorMagic appear to be the leaders in this field, so the use of ONLY is misleading at best. http://goo.gl/IyKFx

[Vaughn Stewart]

@John

I must admit I had some difficulty with your original assertion as it was focused on a single sentence in a paragraph and your concerns were stated based on taking the sentence out of context.

While it was frustrating, I edited the sentence for clarity.

The half of the paragraph you ignored and are now spinning out of context is "and the VSA ships with the same functionality and management toolset as found in our Enterprise-class storage arrays?"

Are you suggesting that this is available from the Lefthand VSA?

Can you please elaborate on the points of integration which spans the Lefthand VSA, EVA, XP, and 3Par array?

[twitter.com/HPStorageGuy]

Hey Vaughn - sorry, I've been busy this week at our HP Summit (analyst conference) and had no time to comment on this. The issue I think John is raising (and I still don't see it addressed) is your claim to be first with VSA. You very well know that HP LeftHand has had our VSA for several years. So to say you're first -- when in fact the NetApp VSA isn't on the VMware hardware compatability list -- is false. If you really want to fix the blog post to embrace that truth, then you should delete the bit that says "that NetApp is the only storage vendor that ships a production workload capable software-based virtual storage appliance (VSA)".

Your latest comments to John about integration of VSA with all of HP's arrays is simply a red herring. Since our P4000 can span to multiple nodes (have heard of customers with more than 30 nodes), customers aren't asking us to integrate VSA with the rest of our arrays. And not only does our VSA include all the same features (thin provisioning, local and remote replication, etc) as our P4000, but we don't charge extra licensing fees to get any of that.

I know you're a straight up guy and I've always appreciated that about you but you aren't first with a VSA and its not even close.

Customers can try a full featured trial of our HP VSA. All they need is a VM (VMware or Hyper-V) to install it on and DAS drives. If you haven't already, you should check it out: http://www.hp.com/go/TryVSA.

[bumped storage user]

I have a question about performance. Does netapp write performance degrade in any way when snapshots or replication is used. The reason I ask is because one of your competitors can lose as much as 90% of *write* performance when snapshots and replication is used. It is an undocumented but very real phenomenon (and we can duplicate this issue on several of their products). We generally use cifs and often write large files (as much as 1GB in size) so this is a real problem.

[Vaughn Stewart]

@Calvin - Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I've never claimed that NetApp offered the first VSA, but rather that we offer the first VSA that offers the same functionality, management tools, and points of integration as our enterprise line of arrays... In other words, NetApp offers a unified storage one which hardware is merely a means to scale even if the hardware is virtual.

@Bumped - Thanks for sharing. I can understand your concerns. I'd suggest that all storage arrays differ in their ability to provide performance or functionality. NetApp arrays do not lose performance (even though our competitors will say otherwise) with snapshots and our performance actually increases with deduplication. See:

http://blogs.netapp.com/virtualstorageguy/2010/08/fact-vmware-vsphere-on-netapp-is-faster-and-greener.html

If I can help you with more specific information, please shoot me an email at [email protected].