NetApp: New products will take flash mainstream

Storage vendor unveils all-flash products which it claims top offerings from its rivals

NetApp has today launched new enterprise flash products which it claims are better than those of its rivals and will finally take the technology into the mainstream.

The All Flash FAS (AFF) 8000 series was added to its all-flash storage array today. NetApp claims the kit combines "world-class performance" with "the industry's best" data-management product.

Start-ups in the all-flash array space have given more-established vendors such as NetApp and EMC a headache over the past two years. Companies such as Pure Storage have boasted rocketing growth and analysts have agreed that smaller firms are driving the storage market, at the expense of larger firms.

At its Partner Executive Forum in Warsaw earlier this month, NetApp got aggressive on flash tech and vowed to "kill those little dogs that are biting our ankles" in the market. It insisted that its loyal partner base was not having its head turned by rivals' kit.

Today the company continued in its bullish tone and said:

"All-flash storage changes the way companies do business by dramatically speeding application performance and improving server efficiency. The all-flash choices available from other vendors today, however, lack core enterprise capabilities such as application integration, built-in data protection, and integration with the cloud. The AFF8000 series delivers the benefits that make all-flash systems ready for broad enterprise deployment. Customers also achieve better ROI for the long term as a result of NetApp's unique ability to seamlessly move data from flash to disk to cloud as it ages."

NetApp's vice president for product and solutions market Lee Caswell said his firm will be the one behind flash hitting the big time.

"The AFF8000 line is built to take high-performance flash storage into the mainstream," he said. "We help customers achieve better long-term outcomes with a complete set of enterprise capabilities and the unique ability to support data movement from flash to disk to cloud as needs change."