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NetApp | Find Your Win with FAS2500, FAS8080EX, and AFF

6/17/2014

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Today, NetApp launches their latest product offerings in the FAS line, the FAS2500 and FAS8080EX, as well as adds some AWESOMENESS to their all-flash offerings, a.k.a., All Flash FAS, or AFF. 

The New FAS2500 Series Solution

The FAS2500 series, product models Alpine, Tenaya, and Tioga after the product code names, is now announced! So what is the product offering, and why would I want it?

FAS2500 Positioning

NetApp FAS2500 Series: Delivering best-in-class value and capability.
— FAS2500 Series Datasheet
Picture
NetApp FAS 2552 | Find Your Win
The FAS2500, as you can imagine, is positioned as the next generation of the 2200 series in the FAS-V portfolio. Here is a comparison of the models:
     New Product
     2520 (Tioga)
     2552 (Tenaya)
     2554 (Alpine)
Replaces
2220
2240-2
2240-4
For the most part, many of the specs are designed to be the same to maintain backwards compatibility with existing shelves and system, thereby increasing the return on investment (ROI) of existing customers. Here are the specifications per HA pair:

Form Factor
Memory
NVRAM
Max Spindles
Onboard 1GbE
Onboard CNA
Onboard 10GBT
Convert to Shelf

Optional I/O
FAS2220
2U
12GB Memory
1.5GB NVRAM
up to 60 disks
(8) 1GbE
--
--
No

  options:
     (4) 10GbE
     —
FAS2520
2U
36GB Memory
2.5GB NVRAM
up to 84 disks
(4) 1GbE
--
(8) 10GBaseT
No

  options:
     --
     —
FAS2240
2U or 4U
12GB Memory
1.5GB NVRAM
up to 144 disks
(8) 1GbE
--
--
Yes

  options:
     (4) 10GbE
     (4) 8GbFC
FAS255x
2U or 4U
36GB Memory
2.5GB NVRAM
up to 144 disks
(4) 1GbE
(8) 8/16/10 CNA
--
Yes

  options:
     --
     --
So what's new?

FAS2500 Goodness!

The first thing you will notice right away is the new bezel? Now, most people I have met don't really care much about the bezel, but I like them! 
Picture
NetApp FAS2500 Series Bezel
In my mind, the key differentiator of the 2500 series is its optimization for NetApp unified fabrics. For the entry-level business, the 2520 offers 4 x 10Gb Base-T copper connections. Yup. Boom! 
Picture
NetApp FAS2520 Controller with (4) 10GBaseT Ports
For most future customers of the 2500 series, I would guess (though I could certainly be wrong), the big news is the FAS2552 and FAS2554 controllers, both of which now come standard with 4 x Converged Network Adapter (CNA or UTA) ports! Boom!

The new FAS255x comes with (2) 1GbE ports (if you want to do management on a LIF, perhaps?), the standard e0M gigabit port, and . . .  wait for it . . . (4) 8/16GbFC or 10GbE CNA ports! 
Picture
NetApp FAS 255x Controller with (4) 8/16/10Gbps CNA Ports
What could possibly be better? The FAS2500 series now supports two-node switchless Clustered DataONTAP solutions! Wahoo!

If you don't know much about cDOT, check out this video:

How Scalable is the FAS2500 Solution?

We all know data is exploding. The Internet of Things is really pushing that. So how can the FAS2500 help you? With Clustered DataONTAP and non-disruptive operations (software upgrades, storage retirement, etc.), you can scale at will! 

NAS/SAN Scale Out
Maximum spindles
Maximum raw capacity
Maximum flash pool
Maximum memory
Cluster Interconnect
FAS2520
1-4 Nodes (2 Pairs)
168
672TB
8TB
72GB
10Gb BaseT
FAS2552
1-8 Nodes (4 Pairs)
576
2.07PB
16TB
144GB
10GbE (SFP+)
FAS2554
1-8 Nodes (4 Pairs)
576
2.30PB
16TB
144GB
10GbE (SFP+)

The New FAS8080EX Mission-Critical Solution

FAS8080EX Positioning

NetApp FAS8080 EX: Reach new levels of performance, availability, and scalability for business-critical applications.
— FAS8080 EX Datasheet
The FAS8080 EX, codename Agusta, is the successor to the FAS6250/90, also as you might imagine. And here are the specifications, by way of comparison:

Form Factor
CPU Cores

Memory
NVRAM
Max Spindles

Max Flash Cache
Max Flash Pool
Maximum SSDs
Maximum Aggregate

PCIe Expansion Slots
Onboard 1GbE
Onboard 8/16/10Gb CNA
Onboard 10GbE

Onboard 8GbFC
Onboard 6Gb SAS

NAS Scale Out
  Maximum spindles
  Maximum raw capacity
  Maximum flash pool
  Maximum memory


SAN Scale Out
  Maximum spindles
  Maximum raw capacity
  Maximum flash pool
  Maximum memory
 
Cluster Interconnect
FAS6290
12U
(4) 6-Core @ 2.93GHz (24 cores)
192GB Memory
4GB NVRAM
up to 1440 disks
16TB
24TB
240
400TB

24
4
--
8
8
8

1–24 Nodes (12 HA Pairs)
17,280
69PB
288TB
2.30TB

1–8 Nodes (4 HA Pairs)
5760
23PB
144TB
768GB
(2 or 4) 10GbE (SFP+)
FAS8080 EX
12U
(4) 10-Core @ 2.8GHz (40 cores)
256GB Memory
32GB NVRAM
up to 1440 disks
16TB
72GB
240
400TB

24
8
8
8
--
8

1–24 Nodes (12 HA Pairs)
17,280
69PB
432TB
3.07TB

1–8 Nodes (4 HA Pairs)
5760
23PB
144TB
1TB
(2, 4 or 6) 10GbE (SFP+)
Storage scale-out to more than 17,000 drives and 4M IOPS of performance combined with the industry-leading management capabilities of Data ONTAP enables the FAS8080 EX to process petabytes of data for complex resource exploration, faster semiconductor chip design, or optimally managing logistics for billion-dollar-plus product operations. Nearly 70 PB of data in a 24-node cluster can be managed from a single console to reduce the cost of operations and simplify ware- housing years of business-critical data. 
— FAS8080 EX Datasheet
In other words, this things kicks butt and takes names—can't wait to get my hands on one of these puppies! 

The All-Flash FAS (AFF)

An all-flash FAS system brings together the extreme performance characteristic of an all-flash array with the rich feature set and proven enterprise-grade reliability of the NetApp® Data ONTAP® operating system. This provides customers with the ability to serve workloads that require high performance at low latencies, with the added benefit of Data ONTAP’s multi-protocol, scale-out, and efficiency and data management capabilities. 
— NetApp All-Flash FAS Technical FAQ
I am super-excited about the AFF offering from NetApp. Here is some of the awesomeness about these new configurations. Did you know that NetApp is the market leader when it comes to Flash? They hold hundreds of flash-related patents, and then there's this:
Picture
NetApp All-flash FAS | Find Your Win

What's New and Different About All-Flash FAS?

Here are just a few things that you will find, a highlight reel, if you will:
  • The increased memory storage (see above) enables faster response times and allows routine SSD tasks to be done by the controller, eliminating SSD overhead
  • Inline compression and in-memory write coalescing mitigates SSD wear in huge way
  • NetApp unconditionally warranties all SSDs — up to 5 years! 
  • Low-cost replication to spinning disk using traditional SnapMirror and SnapProtect software
  • Scales to over 4M IOPS with sub-millisecond latency! 
  • No protocol limitation as with other vendors—use it the way you need to!
  • Find Your VDI Win—starting at just $55/desktop! NetApp Technical Report 4307
Picture
NetApp Flash Offerings Comparison | Find Your Win
What are you most excited about?

Find out more about these awesome offerings at our CrowdChat at 12:45pm EST today!
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