Network Appliance Introduces New System Platform That Rewrites the Rules for Global IT Infrastructures
First Products in "End-to-End" Strategy—NetApp® F840c, F840, and Data ONTAP™ 6.0—Take Scalability and Performance to New Heights for Data-Intensive Enterprise Applications
Sunnyvale, CA - September 12, 2000 -- Network Appliance, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP), the leading provider of network-attached data access and content management solutions, today unveiled its new system platform specifically designed to dramatically increase the scalability, reliability, and performance of global storage infrastructures.
The F840c and F840, combined with the next generation of Network Appliance's robust operating system Data ONTAP 6.0, are the first products enabling data access and content delivery solutions to scale from tens to hundreds or even thousands of terabytes of capacity based on interoperable appliance building blocks. They are also the first products unveiled in Network Appliance's "end-to-end" data management and content delivery strategy, which was announced in a separate press release on September 5, 2000.
Network Appliance developed this new system platform to address customer requirements for far larger and more robust storage network solutions. These products offer customers significantly greater capacity than previous NetApp solutions, and provide levels of data availability unmatched by any other storage network vendor. The platform is especially appealing for large global enterprises, content delivery networks (CDNs), Internet service providers (ISPs), application service providers (ASPs), and storage service providers (SSPs.)
In effect, Network Appliance has dramatically changed how storage networks are deployed, enabling those customers with massive capacity environments to simplify, share, and scale their critical storage networking infrastructures. As an added benefit, customers can also substantially increase the performance of their mission-critical business applications such as database, collaborative, and home directory applications. In industry standard CIFS and NFS benchmark tests (NetBench 6.0 and SPEC SFS97), the F840c and F840 are the industry's highest performing dual- and single-processor configurations, ranking 2-3 times better performance in throughput and response time than competitors' offerings. Furthermore, these RAID-protected, single file system, results exhibit leading price/performance and lowest total cost of ownership in contrast to more complex systems.
"Network Appliance's innovative framework allows enterprises to deploy large global networks, and scale multiple terabytes of storage capacity," said Mark Santora, senior vice president of marketing at Network Appliance. "Our individual products are intelligent building blocks, uniquely networked together, giving Network Appliance and our customers a competitive edge in scalability, reliability, and performance. Equally important, our new system platform interoperates within existing IT infrastructures, and seamlessly migrates to and incorporates emerging open storage network protocols and topologies such as NDMP and the recently announced Direct Access File System, or DAFS. Bottom line—our new F840 system platform with Data ONTAP 6.0 is optimized for storage networking applications, empowering customers to scale their storage, enterprise, content delivery, and global networks—without limits."
Network Appliance is unveiling the following new products as part of this launch:
NetApp Filers:
F840c Clustered Enterprise Filer
Individual building block capacity to 12 terabytes1/8X increase
Active/active clustering and integrated failover
Maximized data availability for mission-critical environments
3.4X throughput performance increase to more than 25,900 SFS ops/sec @ < 1.6ms overall response time (50% improvement)
3.9X NetBench throughput performance increase to more than 987 Mbits/sec
1Requires future Data ONTAP release
F840 Enterprise Filer
Individual building block capacity to 6 terabytes2/4X increase
Greater than 99.99% data availability
2X throughput performance increase to more than 15,200 SFS ops/sec @ < 1.6ms overall response time (50% improvement)
2X NetBench throughput performance increase to more than 503 Mbits/sec
2Requires Data ONTAP 6.0.1
NetApp Software:
Data ONTAP 6.0
Network Appliance's most advanced software for scalable storage capacity
Enhanced data protection and maximum data availability
Intuitive graphical user interface for appliance and data management interoperable with leading framework application software packages
Mixed environments support for NFS, CIFS and HTTP delivering heterogeneous file sharing
Data ONTAP 6.0, Network Appliance's new operating system software for filer solutions, provides customers with increased storage capacity while delivering significant advances in system and storage network scalability as well as improved reliability and data integrity. The field-proven micro kernel incorporates new proactive subsystem monitoring and predictive reporting for new levels of data availability. Data protection enhancements include a 50% increase in Snapshot™ capabilities with an innovative design that makes file and data volume protection nearly instantaneous. Additionally, more robust LAN/WAN mirroring provides efficient replication and enhanced disaster recovery.
As with all NetApp solutions, service and support for the NetApp F840c, F840, and Data ONTAP 6.0 are available through the Network Appliance™ Availability AdvantageSM service program. The NetApp F840c and F840 are bundled with the E-nabler 3-year warranty which includes NetApp On the Web (N.O.W.) access and next business day parts replacement in addition to 7x24 emergency telephone and 7x24 non-emergency Web support. Additional services are also available.
About Network Appliance
Network Appliance, Inc., a veteran in network file serving and caching, has been providing data access solutions since 1992, and is a member of both the S+P 500 and NASDAQ 100 index. Major corporations and ISPs, including Lycos, Yahoo!, Citicorp Securities, Siemens, Lockheed, Cisco, Motorola, and Texas Instruments have deployed NetApp solutions. NetApp Internet caching solutions (NetCache™ appliances) and file servers (filers) deliver fast, simple, reliable, and cost-effective access to network-stored data and enable simultaneous shared file services for UNIX®, Windows NT®, and the World Wide Web.
The company pioneered the concept of the "network appliance," an extension of the industry trend toward dedicated, specialized products that perform a single function. Network Appliance filers and NetCache appliances are based on the company's innovative data access software known as the Data ONTAP operating system and standards-compliant hardware.
Press Contacts:
Eric Brown
Network Appliance, Inc.
(408) 822-3463
ebrown@netapp.com
Jaime Jinks
Network Appliance, Inc.
(408) 822-3761
jjinks@netapp.com
Editorial Addendum: Analyst, Customer, and Partner Quotes
Industry Analysts
Cahners In-Stat Group
"The new Network Appliance F800 series enterprise filers demonstrate how Network Appliance is meeting the ever-changing needs of their customers," said Robyn Bergeron, industry analyst at Cahners In-Stat Group. "The storage market continues to be one of the most competitive in the industry, and new players seem to enter the fray every week. Network Appliance appears well-positioned to remain a formidable force, and a strong NAS leader."
Enterprise Storage Group
"The storage market got everyone's attention because of insatiable capacity demands at dot coms, but that was just the tip of the iceberg," said Steve Duplessie, senior analyst at Enterprise Storage Group. "Seamless delivery of rich content is the real storage driver as e-biz initiatives force companies to improve the user experience. Network Appliance is in a select class, being able to provide data solutions from the central data center to the farthest edge of the Internet. The other storage companies are going to have to have end-to-end solutions to compete over the coming years."
IDC
"Network Appliance's move into the high-performance, high-capacity enterprise is a sign the company is sustaining its momentum, and aggressively expanding into new territories," said Robert Gray, research director at IDC. "The company's new products offer the same benefits that have driven NetApp's success (performance, reliability, scalability, and ease of use) and take each of those to the next level."
Customers
EarthLink Networks
"Bringing the magic of the Internet to almost 4 million people in cities, suburbs, and small towns all across America puts significant IT demands on us," said Steve Dougherty, director of technology acquisition at EarthLink Networks. "To keep up with our growth, and the increasing sophistication of our customers, whose demands for content and access are voracious, we need storage solutions that are high-performance and high-capacity. Network Appliance delivers on both, and their new F800 series is ideal for our expanding business. As we reach more and more homes throughout the United States, we foresee needing more Network Appliance products as an integral part of our IT mix."
FMC Corp.
"Developing and building underwater integrated energy systems is a data-intensive business," said Steve Yarbrough, IT manager, Western Hemisphere at FMC Energy Systems. "FMC is a proven innovator in oilfield solutions. Our design teams who create the products that support the flow of energy resources need high-performance, high-capacity networked storage to power their CAD and database applications. The NetApp 840c product in a clustered failover configuration was ideal-it has massive capacity and scalability, and all the data stored on the product is completely protected."
NetLedger, Inc.
"NetLedger is the leading application service provider that enables small businesses to run totally online," said Dave Durkee, chief information officer at NetLedger. "We need technology partners who can scale as we grow, and who offer the performance, availability, and service our customers demand. Because of this, we use Network Appliance solutions as the storage power behind the Oracle database that runs our online accounting and business management offerings. Running any business online is no easy task. Running hundreds takes special expertise. Luckily, Network Appliance storage products, including their new NetApp F840, give us more time to focus on our customers' needs by spending less time on our own IT maintenance."
StorageNetworks, Inc.
"The storage service provider business is exploding as customers' demands for data remain insatiable," said Bruce Gordon, vice president of marketing for StorageNetworks, Inc. "To meet those demands, we have built data storage services that enable customers to rapidly develop, deploy and protect critical content. The Network Appliance storage solutions are one of the key tech sets we utilize to deliver our NetPACSSM network-attached primary data storage service. Their filers are reliable, and scale on demand as customer capacity grows and as more customers connect to our Global Data Storage Network. We expect the new NetApp F800 filers will bring even more capacity and scalability to storage networks."
Yahoo!
"As one of the world's leading Internet companies, our infrastructure must scale quickly and effectively to meet the demands of our millions of users," said Geoff Ralston, vice president and general manager of Yahoo!'s Communications Services Group. "Network Appliance systems allow us to integrate new products and solutions quickly and easily—often into live and active environments. We are very impressed with the new NetApp F800 series."
Industry Partners
ATL
"The new Network Appliance F800 series brings new levels of performance and scalability to open storage networks," said Kevin Daly, president and CEO of ATL. "We're working closely with Network Appliance and other industry leaders to pioneer new approaches to storage networking, and to nurture a variety of open protocols and industry standards. Network Appliance continues to demonstrate their technology and solutions prowess, and their products deliver compelling value to customers." |
