NetApp Announces New Virtual Storage Tiering Strategy

NetApp recently announced a three-step comprehensive Virtual Storage Tiering (VST) strategy with the release of the NetApp Flash Accel, an extended Technology Alliance Program which invites server caching hardware and software partners, and a reseller agreement with Fusion-io (News - Alert).

"Creating an agile data infrastructure depends heavily on anticipating and managing application performance needs,” said Tim Russell, vice president and general manager, Data Lifecycle Ecosystem Group, NetApp. “NetApp Flash Accel and caching products from our partners add a persistent and durable storage layer on the server, which, when used as part of our Virtual Storage Tiering approach, leads to the automatic management of data from storage to the application based on affinity and workload. This results in dramatic application and server performance boosts that will accelerate how business is conducted using virtualized environments."

The NetApp Flash Accel has been designed to accelerate application performance by converting server-side Flash into a cache capable of storing frequently accessed data.

Flash Accel also allows users to select any server PCI (News - Alert)-e flash card or SSD flash device; supports complete Intelligent Data Coherency to address issues which can corrupt data, via automated and efficient data coherency detection and correction software technology; and preserves cache content through applications anytime the server and VM reboot and or crash, yielding consistently high performance.

Server caching within the new Virtual Storage Tiering strategy will ensure accelerated application and server performance by an approximate 90 percent via the deployment of server cache on virtual machines. It also provides a greater level of data integrity and reliability, working with Data ONTAP back-end platforms to ensure consistent copying and storage of all data on the back-end Data ONTAP platform.

Coherency and integration with Data ONTAP enables quick identification and resolves data coherency issues as well, supporting the deployment of high-confidence solutions, and services covering an extensive range of applications and operating environments via NetApp validated partner solutions.

The storage initiative especially promises a high level of flexibility, allowing users to deploy any server caching solutions validated by NetApp.

In its efforts to support an open partner ecosystem for intelligent caching, NetApp will be extending its Alliance Partner Program to include hardware and software server-caching partners. In addition to developing solutions with NetApp, partners will also be encouraged to submit and qualify "NetApp validated" server-caching solutions based on established standards for coherence and integration with Data ONTAP and Flash Accel.

The company has also entered into a resale agreement with Fusion-io (FIO), leading provider of Flash memory solutions. Under the terms of the agreement, NetApp will resell Fusion-io ioMemory platform products, as well as the ioTurbine server caching software for virtualized environments and Direct Cache server caching software for non-virtualized environments.

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