Unlike DNF, OnTap 8 actually looks like it is going to ship! This has been a long road and it is unfair to say that at various points it looked like that the version number was actually denoting the years it had been in development. But that's what it felt like!
The release of OnTap 8 is interesting; it's a big deal for NetApp and is almost certainly as a big a deal for them as V-MAX was for EMC. But what is important is that it is not currently linked to any new hardware platform; it is a software release. Yes, there are some hardware announcements but no major refresh.
This is currently a hugely important difference between NetApp and many of it's rivals; NetApp are a software company which happen to sell a hardware platform to run their software on. Their hardware platform is not especially special (sorry guys but it isn't); the special sauce is the software. And with OnTap 8, they have completely revved the recipe!
The feature list is impressive and contains many things which I have wanted from them for some time. Lots of good stuff around scalability; some of it long overdue, especially the enhancements delivered by 64 bit goodness.
I especially like the announcement around Data Motion; seamless migration between storage devices, a big deal in the NAS space. Moving NAS data around without outages is painful. If NetApp achieve this, more power to their elbow. Data Mobility is one of those problems which has yet to be fully solved.
I am not entirely convinced by the PAM-II cards and it is going to be interesting to see how the competing approaches to flash stack up long term.
So we've had V-MAX from EMC and OnTap 8 from NetApp. So what have HDS and IBM left to offer us?
I’m holding my comments on OnTap 8.x until I’ve had formal confirmation as to what features are in 8.0 and what are in 8.1, and 8.1’s timeline.
Whilst the 8.x range is good, it previously looked like 8.1 was the version needed to do anything material re replacing a 7.3 environment with…
Also concerned that it’ll be used as yet another excuse to force h/ware refresh (re MK1 shelves and 7.3 etc)
Yeah Yeah Yeah,
ianhf, ask your NetApp rep. He’ll explain you how 8.0 is working. There are two modes and until you’re not using 8.0 ‘full’ you don’t have to force a hw refresh.
and there are funny things coming with 8.1……
Dedupe Data,
Thanks for that – I’m a NetApp global customer, but frankly one hears very little from the ‘account reps’ nowadays.
I’ve discussed with Ryan & Dave L over the last couple of years re v8, but sadly this ‘pre announcement’ feels very ‘future placeholder’ style (much like emc’s vmax) – in that buy the kool-aid now and get the goodness in the future…
Any product version change and/or part number change impacts interop in some way – either with the manufacturing company or the 3rd parties that relate t them. Thus will be interested to see what v8 does to v7.2, 7.3 etc on the various interop matrices around…
Cheers
Ian
“I am not entirely convinced by the PAM-II cards and it is going to be interesting to see how the competing approaches to flash stack up long term”
PAM II is “better than FAST” delivered now, not next year.
Hot data is promoted to flash immediately, at the very fine grained level of 4K block. There’s no migrating LUNs around willy-nilly in the background wasting time and internal bandwidth. See http://media.netapp.com/documents/wp-7082.pdf
Now, combine PAM II with large aggregates (108TB now and larger as they get qualified), and the new 7U SAS/SATA shelves than hold 24 spindles…
John
John, of course you are going to say that PAM-II is better than FAST; you work for NetApp. The proof of the pudding will be in the eating. I fully expect that we’ll have both on the floor by the end of next year and that will be interesting.
However, we did not get anything like the improvements that we expected from PAM; it made a worthwhile difference but not what we expected.
The increase in aggregate sizes and hence the potential increase in spindle count may well be more important in the long term.
At a minimum, it sets a bar that FAST must now reach. We’ll see how it plays out.
John
Its so sad… i am still wating for Duke Forever and i still have a spark of hope!