Beyond being a druid, I am a Storage Architect with experience with arrays from HDS, NetApp, Compaq/HP, and EMC. This will be my space to talk a little about the things I see and the effect they will have on the industry.
NetApp's Newest Flagship Storage
Posted 11/10/10 at 12:19 AM by Zeln
NetApp has quietly released their newest Arrays. Quietly. For some reason, they're not especially loud about it. Go to their homepage. Let me know if you see something about new hardware.
Why are they so quiet?
They don't have that much to say. They've checked off a box with SSD support (Holy crap finally, but from Samsung, not exactly the leader in Enterprise SSD). Hopefully now they can accelerate more than just read I/O. They finally updated their Processors with more cores. They have moved to the 2.5 inch hd format (PSSST EMC TAKE A FUCKING HINT FROM THE REST OF THE INDUSTRY).
Where is fully automated tiering? Where are the amazing improvements to Virtual Provisioning?
To be fair, NetApp's hardware is built on the capabilities of its software (You don't write to disk, you write to the File System for example). The latest 8 has some great additions, building on what made NetApp great, its Filer capabilities, which things like built in global namespace. In addition, the Aggregates are becoming less and less of a limitation in that you can move between them.
But the reliance on the software actually is where NetApp's biggest issue currently is: They just can't deliver software. They purchased Spinnaker and easiliy integrated the IP into its OnTap operating system.....6 years later. I personally worked on a project that was evaluating vtl and dedupliation. Delay after delay, until finally NetApp just bit the bullet and walked away with Data Domain.... I mean EMC used its vast cash reserves to further screw NetApp. Where is Automated Storage Tiering? NetApp doesn't have the development teams to do it.
Mind you, the companies out there with low budgets are buying the crap out of NetApp. Because it's cheap. And years later they are finding their aggregates are filling up and performance is going to shit. So here is your chance, upgrade your filers, and hope that in a few years Netapp will be ready to go with more cores.
Why are they so quiet?
They don't have that much to say. They've checked off a box with SSD support (Holy crap finally, but from Samsung, not exactly the leader in Enterprise SSD). Hopefully now they can accelerate more than just read I/O. They finally updated their Processors with more cores. They have moved to the 2.5 inch hd format (PSSST EMC TAKE A FUCKING HINT FROM THE REST OF THE INDUSTRY).
Where is fully automated tiering? Where are the amazing improvements to Virtual Provisioning?
To be fair, NetApp's hardware is built on the capabilities of its software (You don't write to disk, you write to the File System for example). The latest 8 has some great additions, building on what made NetApp great, its Filer capabilities, which things like built in global namespace. In addition, the Aggregates are becoming less and less of a limitation in that you can move between them.
But the reliance on the software actually is where NetApp's biggest issue currently is: They just can't deliver software. They purchased Spinnaker and easiliy integrated the IP into its OnTap operating system.....6 years later. I personally worked on a project that was evaluating vtl and dedupliation. Delay after delay, until finally NetApp just bit the bullet and walked away with Data Domain.... I mean EMC used its vast cash reserves to further screw NetApp. Where is Automated Storage Tiering? NetApp doesn't have the development teams to do it.
Mind you, the companies out there with low budgets are buying the crap out of NetApp. Because it's cheap. And years later they are finding their aggregates are filling up and performance is going to shit. So here is your chance, upgrade your filers, and hope that in a few years Netapp will be ready to go with more cores.
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Recent Blog Entries by Zeln
- SAN Redundancy and Round Robin Multipathing (07/18/11)
- NetApp's Newest Flagship Storage (11/10/10)
- Storage News (10/08/10)
- Moments of Doh. (09/28/10)
- HDS Announces VSP (09/27/10)
