When it comes to solid-state storage, one size does not fit all, says NetApp’s Regional Director, Fadi Kanafani
FADI KANAFANI, REGIONAL DIRECTOR MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
Across the Middle East, actionable information has become the great business differentiator, but more than ever, it is not just the data in an organisation’s possession that is most important, but the speed at which that data can be accessed and visualised for decision makers. Thus, information managers are turning to flash – also sometimes known as solid-state – storage for its low latency and stability. NetApp is a pioneer in the field. As Fadi Kanafani, Regional Director Middle East and Africa, points out:
“Although some have come to market recently with flash offerings, NetApp has always been a leader in that domain, when we launched flash in 2009. The market was not ready then, but we kept evolving that line until we finalised our vision for flash.”
Kanafani has observed the regional market’s inflated appetite for flash in recent times, as data-centric, high-performance applications such as the Internet of Things, data analytics and web hosting services have taken centrestage. “Adoption in the region was shy to begin with, but in the past 18 months there
has been a much better uptake rate,” he said. “We have seen interest from governments, the finance industry, manufacturing, energy, oil and gas, healthcare and education – each with their individual needs.”
NO COOKIE-CUTTER APPROACH
NetApp fervently disagrees with many of its competitors in what it sees as their “one size fits all” approach to flash storage solutions. “In flash, we have three solutions,” Kanafani explained. “AFF, or All-Flash FAS array is, an enterprise grade data services solution that allows us to scale out with very low latency and deliver up to four million IOPS [input-output operations per second]. Our EFF solutions are based on the E-Series product line. This is where we deliver microsecond-latency performance – ideal for web-hosting projects, or any application where data needs to be returned at a very high rate. This platform also brings optimal cost efficiency in terms of dollar per IOPS.”
NetApp recently acquired SolidFire, allowing the company to bring its third flash offering to market,
targeting the enterprise, cloud and service-provider community, where scalability is paramount.
“SolidFire allows software-defined storage and programmable functionality, with very particular quality-assurance standards that are normally not available in other storage systems,” said Kanafani.
“So that’s why we believe one size does not fit all; because different businesses, different workloads,
require different flavours of flash. We listen to the market and then meet those business objectives with the right solutions.”
DATA FABRIC
NetApp’s current strategy is built around its Data Fabric concept, which uses a software called ONTAP as its foundation. ONTAP is a high-level data management platform that delivers up to 103 petabytes of
maximum raw capacity on a single system and enables NAS scale-out up to 24 nodes.
This enables organisations to eliminate silos and unify their data storage across flash, disk and cloud.
“ONTAP is the core software that differentiates us from all other storage vendors,” Kanafani said. “This is a solution that has been on the market for 20-plus years and brings to the customer the best they could expect from a data management platform. Today, you want to make sure your data is available irrespective of where it is located. You want it secured and you want it mobile.” He believes businesses are recognising the importance of flash and, because its cost has dropped, it has become a
more attractive proposition. “Companies and organisations desire the ability to have a customised
experience,” he said. “They want to be able to support the Internet of Things and the cloud. And all of that requires very fast, near real-time response times.”
