Stephens Deploys NetApp

SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- Network Appliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) today announced that Stephens Media Group, a diversified media publisher with corporate holdings that span newspapers, news bureaus, book publishing, and Internet-based services, has consolidated its headquarters data center onto a NetApp unified storage solution, replacing its entire tier-one EMC networked storage infrastructure. With native support for both network-attached storage (NAS) and Fibre Channel storage-area network (FC SAN) connectivity, the NetApp unified solution is used for Stephens Media’s mission-critical publishing, circulation, imaging, Lotus Notes, and financials, allowing the company to easily consolidate, scale, and centrally manage its storage infrastructure. Additionally, Stephens chose NetApp virtualization and disaster recovery solutions from NetApp for its remote data center location to better protect its business-critical applications and plan for unexpected natural disasters.

The NetApp deployment at Stephens Media is based on clustered NetApp FAS6030 and FAS270 systems running NetApp Data ONTAP® 7G with FlexVol® technology. This high-performance storage solution allows Stephens Media to achieve true virtualization of its data and improved overall disk utilization by adding storage when and where it is needed without disruption and risk. It also provides IT staff the flexibility to adapt quickly and easily to management needs as the publishing business demands. Also, with NetApp SnapMirror® and SnapRestore® software, Stephens Media is able to be back online almost instantly from a disaster scenario with the ability to recover from an individual file to a multiterabyte volume within a short period of time.

“We built the NetApp solution for optimal performance and have found it to be equal to if not better than the EMC Symmetrix, Celerra, and Clariion we replaced,” said Chris Fredrickson, IT director at Stephens Media. “Furthermore, we’ve reduced our capital and ongoing maintenance costs by more than $300,000 annually. What is harder to calculate, yet more significant, is the return on investment we have achieved. NetApp helped us increase productivity and workflow efficiencies, reduce downtime, and improve application availability. Deploying the NetApp solution eliminated the pain points of replication, scalability, and unexpected costs that we experienced with our previous EMC infrastructure.”

“Rapid data growth and a time-dependent service—it’s a combination that demands the data center proven capabilities of NetApp unified systems,” said Patrick Rogers, vice president of Products and Partners at Network Appliance. “Media companies simply cannot afford expensive and disruptive IT issues that impact their ability to meet internal end user demands. For Stephens Media, a company with a newspaper that has not missed a day of publication in 100 years, timely delivery is everything.”

Network Appliance Inc.