NetApp unveils upgraded storage systems for all sizes

NetApp has announced updates to its enterprise storage offerings, introducing new systems aimed at modernising workloads for businesses of all sizes.

The company has released updates to its AFF A-Series and AFF C-Series systems, providing mid-range, all-flash, unified data storage. These updates offer improved density and performance for object storage, making them accessible to businesses irrespective of their size.

Intelligent data strategies are becoming increasingly critical for enterprises facing challenges in modern data management, such as exponential data growth, multi-cloud complexity, and the necessity for AI readiness. NetApp positions its Intelligent Data Infrastructure as a solution to these challenges, offering a framework for secure, agile, and future-ready data strategies.

The company's recent innovations allow customers to expand their infrastructure with more accessible entry points, facilitating easier scaling from smaller starting points or expanding capabilities to remote and branch locations. The new systems are designed to support critical workloads, such as database applications and AI, and make efficient use of all-flash storage to manage growing data volumes.

NetApp's AFF A-Series storage systems now include new models such as the AFF A20, A30, and A50. These models offer advanced capabilities, including sub-millisecond latency and performance improvements over previous versions, along with integrated real-time ransomware protection and improved storage density.

The AFF A20 starts at a capacity of 15.35TB, suitable for customers looking to begin small. The AFF A30 provides scalability options over 1PB of raw storage, while the AFF A50 claims twice the performance in a much smaller space, catering to commercial and enterprise needs.

The NetApp AFF C-Series is structured to deliver value for general-purpose workloads, enabling workload consolidation across file, block, and object storage protocols. Among the models released, the AFF C30, C60, and C80 promise to offer 1.5PB of storage capacity in two-rack deployments, boasting savings in floor space and power.

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."

These systems are powered by NetApp ONTAP, which provides streamlined operational and protection models to facilitate the handling of mission-critical apps, general-purpose workloads, and data tiering to lower-cost systems.

With enhancements to NetApp StorageGRID, the company enables customers to manage their growing object workloads more efficiently. The updated StorageGRID 11.9 software improves scalability and flexibility, adding support for 60TB capacity flash drives, effectively doubling deployment density.

Oliver Fuckner, System Engineer at Atruvia AG, commented, "Modernizing our data storage onto NetApp AFF C-Series all-flash systems enabled us to consolidate our datacenters with an 80 percent reduction in rack space. The power and efficiency of flash storage has enabled us to modernize 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."

Ashish Nadkarni, Group Vice President and General Manager, Enterprise Infrastructure Research at IDC, added, "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."