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NetApp Scales Up

Posted by Dave Raffo on May 9, 2006

Tags: Infrastructure

Channel: Data Center

Network Appliance is taking aim at the enterprise with the latest additions to its FAS storage line, by far the biggest systems it has ever launched. (See NetApp Targets Enterprise.)

NetApp today unveiled the platform code-named "Excelsior" that it has been boasting about for months. The FAS6030 and FAS6070, immediately available, have a way to go to match the highest end of the competition's enterprise systems, but they dwarf NetApp's previous storage boxes.

Although all NetApp systems support Fibre Channel, NAS, and iSCSI connectivity, the FAS6000 is the first platform designed primarily for SAN.

"There's been a concentrated effort to become more focused on enterprise SAN systems," says Patrick Rogers, VP of products and technology. "We're moving into the frame array domain of high-end TagmaStore or Symmetrix systems."

NetApp's challenge to the EMC Symmetrix and Hitachi Data Systems TagmaStore platforms represents a big jump for NetApp, which made its mark with midrange NAS filers.