NetApp enhances all-flash storage for AI & workload needs

NetApp has announced updates to its portfolio of enterprise storage solutions, introducing new all-flash storage offerings aimed at enhancing AI-readiness and handling demanding workloads for enterprises of various sizes.

The latest offerings include new models within the NetApp AFF A-Series and AFF C-Series systems, designed to provide mid-range, all-flash, unified data storage at accessible price points. Additionally, enhancements to NetApp StorageGRID have been unveiled to improve density and performance for object storage.

Sandeep Singh, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Enterprise Storage at NetApp, stated, "The unrelenting growth of data volumes and increasingly demanding workloads have put increasing pressure on IT teams of any size to provide simplicity at scale for all their workloads. Customers facing those challenges can rely on NetApp to deliver continuous innovation, illustrated by the release of the new more powerful, intelligent, and secure NetApp AFF A-Series systems and the new scalable, efficient, and secure NetApp AFF C-Series systems. Today, we are making our latest developments in intelligent data infrastructure more accessible for an even wider range of customers."

The new AFF A-Series models, including AFF A20, A30, and A50, are positioned to enhance performance with capabilities such as sub-millisecond latency and up to 2.5 times better performance compared to previous iterations. These models also incorporate integrated real-time ransomware protection and guaranteed storage efficiency.

The AFF C-Series, comprising models C30, C60, and C80, aims to deliver maximum density and efficiency with seamless scaling capabilities. These systems offer up to 1.5PB of storage capacity in two-rack deployments, enabling significant cost and space savings.

A key feature of these new systems is their alignment with NetApp's Intelligent Data Infrastructure. This approach supports customers in using data as a strategic asset, facilitating enhanced decision-making and fostering innovation.

Oliver Fuckner, System Engineer, Open Systems & Backup at Atruvia AG, shared his experience: "Modernising our data storage onto NetApp AFF C-Series all-flash systems enabled us to consolidate our datacenters with an 80% reduction in rack space. The power and efficiency of flash storage has enabled us to modernise our workloads and more easily condense the physical space required for our data. NetApp makes it simple to provide the capacity and power we need to scale our environments."

Additionally, NetApp has updated its StorageGRID 11.9 software, enhancing scalability and flexibility for managing object workloads. The inclusion of support for 60TB capacity flash drives in the StorageGRID SGF6112 system doubles the density of object deployments.

Ashish Nadkarni, Group Vice President and General Manager of Enterprise Infrastructure Research at IDC, commented, "What NetApp has done with its new AFF A-Series systems is make its enterprise-grade storage capabilities available to businesses of any size. You don't need to be a Fortune 500 company to access high-performance all-flash storage systems with advanced data management and protection capabilities. Businesses can now find a NetApp offering at a price point that meets their specific needs while benefiting from a single unified data storage ecosystem to streamline their operations."