Network Appliance Inc. (NetApp) has announced a new scaled down
addition to its FAS3000 line of midrange
storage area network (SAN) and
network attached storage (NAS) boxes, and
said more moves downmarket will follow as it continues to
wrestle with EMC Corp. in the midrange.
The FAS 3040 is built using the same 64-bit controller as the
FAS3070 introduced last October. The new box, which is priced
starting at $83,000 for 2 terabytes (TB) of storage, scales up to
252 disk drives or 126 TB capacity and includes 16 embedded 4 Gbps
Fibre Channel ports along with 8 GB cache.
Customers will also be able to add
10 Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) adapter cards in
the second half of this year. (By comparison, the 3070 starts at
roughly $115,000 for a system with 1 TB of capacity, scales to
502 Fibre Channel or
SATA disk drives, or a mix of both for a
total of 252 TB, features 16 GB of cache memory and supports
thirty-two 4 Gbps Fibre Channel ports or 32 GigE ports.
The chief differentiator between this product and other products
in the FAS3000 series with similar capacities is the performance,
according to NetApp's vice president of solutions marketing Patrick
Rogers. The FAS3020 and 3050 are both based on an older controller
introduced in May 2005, which uses a 32-bit operating system. The
FAS3020 and 3050 will stay on the market, Rogers said. Users can
upgrade between any FAS200 or 3000 model system, including the new
systems, by swapping out controllers.
One NetApp user, Craig Vershon, IT infrastructure manager for
Newfield Exploration Co., said he's waiting for the 10 GigE
feature. "Right now we're trunking 1 Gbit pipes, which still
doesn't get us as much throughput as we would like," he said. "We
won't fill the whole 10 Gbits, but we do need a good chunk of it,
and we're running out of plugs trying to do it with 1 Gbit wires."
Vershon, who is currently using the FAS3020, as well as FAS980
filers, said he doesn't have plans to upgrade to the new
controllers right away, but within the next year will probably
switch over, after 10 GigE becomes available. "In our industry we
usually have to expand very quickly on short notice," he said, one
of the reasons he picked NetApp because upgrading does not require
switching out disks or migrating data.
Vershon said he is eyeing the FAS6000 series to replace his
older 980s, but will wait to see 10 GigE adapters become available
for those systems before upgrading.
NetApp is slightly behind archrival EMC in announcing a variety
of capacity models for newer, faster midrange disk systems. EMC
currently offers four models of its 4 Gbps Fibre Channel boxes with
PCI-Express, the CX3-20, CX3-40, CX3-80 and most recently, the
CX3-10.
Rogers hinted that an equivalent to the CX3-10 will come out of
the FAS3000 line in the coming months. "That's the next logical
place we would go, and ultimately you'll see something like it, but
that's not something we're ready to announce today," he said.
The 3040 is also available as a diskless V-series gateway,
starting at $58,450 for a single controller system. The V-series
can be used to make any disk subsystem, including, NetApp was quick
to point out, an EMC Clariion, into a NetApp box and allow it to
run NetApp's snapshot and mirroring software.
Users to benefit from increased competition
It's no secret in the industry that the already heated
competition between EMC and NetApp has grown even more intense with
NetApp's growth in the midrange SAN market since the introduction
of the 3000 line, and in particular since NetApp began sniping at
EMC on performance since the introduction of the 64-bit controller
with the 3070 in October. (See
EMC and NetApp duke it out in the
midrange, Nov. 16). The 3000 line has become "the
stalwart" among all of NetApp's storage offerings, with
approximately 10,000 units shipped in the last 18 months,
according to Rogers, who called it "the heart of our product
line in terms of revenues."
But that's only part of the story, according to Brian Babineau,
analyst with the Enterprise Strategy Group. "The real battle as far
as NetApp is concerned is between the NetApp-IBM contingency and
the EMC-Dell Inc. contingency, and it's international," he said,
adding that NetApp's SAN growth is due at least in part to IBM
giving it "data center level credibility" with its install
base.
NetApp has also been reporting heady growth as a result of its
development in the midrange space, which Babineau noted can't last
forever. "Eventually the 30% to 40% top-line numbers are going to
start to decline," he said. "They can't sustain that long
term."
Babineau also said he doesn't envision a total takeover by
NetApp in the midrange space, either. "NetApp has the momentum of
the NAS/iSCSI growth market, but EMC is still strongest in Fibre
Channel," he said. "And in the end, both NetApp and EMC are also
battling with [Hewlett-Packard Co.] (HP) who also continues to be a
leader in the midrange SAN market with the EVA."
The infighting over product features will continue to cause
fireworks, Babineau predicted, but said the bottom line for users
is that the continued fierce competition in this market will mean
they have much more power to negotiate better pricing. "If
customers are smart, they'll just play all three of these guys
against each other to get the best deal," Babineau said.