NetApp enhances StorageGRID and unveils new AFF A-Series and C-Series storage models.
NetApp has announced updates to its enterprise storage portfolio, unveiling new models within the AFF A-Series and AFF C-Series, alongside enhancements to NetApp StorageGRID. These advancements offer mid-range, all-flash, unified data storage solutions at accessible price points for businesses of any scale while driving improvements in density and performance for object storage environments.
Expanding AFF A-Series
The new NetApp AFF A-Series models—AFF A20, A30, and A50—bring advanced storage capabilities within the reach of more customers. Like their high-end counterparts, these models offer features such as sub-millisecond latency, up to 2.5 times improved performance over previous models, guaranteed storage efficiency, and integrated ransomware protection with over 99% accuracy. These enhancements enable NetApp to deliver high-end, mission-critical storage performance to a broader customer base, addressing the needs of any organization looking to build or expand its intelligent data infrastructure.
Use cases for the new models include:
- AFF A20: Ideal for smaller deployments or remote branches, starting at a modest 15.35TB capacity.
- AFF A30: Provides a flexible growth path, supporting storage scalability up to 1PB of raw capacity.
- AFF A50: Optimized for enterprise environments, offering twice the performance of its predecessor in reduced rack space, catering to commercial and enterprise needs.
NetApp AFF A-Series Specifications
| Feature | AFF A50 | AFF A30 | AFF A20 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximum scale-out | 2–24 nodes (12 HA pairs) | 2–24 nodes (12 HA pairs) | 2–24 nodes (12 HA pairs) | |||
| Maximum SSDs | 1440 | 864 | 576 | |||
| Maximum effective capacity | 176.47PB | 59.05PB | 39.37PB | |||
| Controller chassis form factor | 2U; 24 internal SSD slots | 2U; 24 internal SSD slots | 2U; 24 internal SSD slots | |||
| Power consumption (median) | Results pending | Results pending | Results pending | |||
| PCIe expansion slots | 8 | 8 | 8 | |||
| FC target ports (64Gb autoranging) | 24 | 24 | 24 | |||
| FC target ports (32Gb autoranging) | 24 | 24 | 24 | |||
| FC target ports (16Gb autoranging) | 24 | 24 | 24 | |||
| FCoE target ports, U TA2 | 64 | n/a | n/a | |||
| 200GbE ports (100GbE/40GbE autoranging) | n/a | n/a | n/a | |||
| 100GbE ports (40GbE autoranging) | 16 | 16 | 12 | |||
| 25GbE ports (10GbE autoranging) | 24 | 24 | 32 | |||
| 10GbE ports | 24 | 24 | 24 | |||
| 10GBASE-T (1GbE autoranging) | 24 | 24 | 24 | |||
| 12Gb/6Gb SAS ports | 16 | 16 | 16 | |||
| OS version | ONTAP 9.16.1 or later | ONTAP 9.16.1 or later | ONTAP 9.16.1 or later | |||
| Shelves and media | NS224 (2U, 24 drives, SFF NVMe) | NS224 (2U, 24 drives, SFF NVMe) | NS224 (2U, 24 drives, SFF NVMe) | |||
| Host/client OS supported | Windows Server, Linux, Oracle Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, macOS, VMware, ESX | |||||
Introducing AFF C-Series for Efficient, Scalable Storage
Designed for general-purpose workloads and workload consolidation, the AFF C-Series (C30, C60, and C80 models) supports unified file, block, and object storage protocols, delivering maximum storage density and efficiency. With the ability to scale seamlessly, the C-Series allows businesses to realize the advantages of flash technology with an industry-leading 1.5PB of capacity in just two rack units. Organizations transitioning from hybrid flash environments to all-flash systems benefit from up to 95% space savings, power savings of up to 97%, and real-time ransomware protection, all contributing to a lower total cost of ownership.
NetApp AFF C-Series Specifications
| AFF C80 | AFF C60 | AFF C30 | |
| Maximum scale-out | 24 nodes | 24 nodes | 24 nodes |
| Raw capacity | 367TB–14.7PB raw | 245TB–7.3PB raw | 122TB–2.2PB raw |
| Max Effective capacity | 707.3PB | 353.6PB | 106PB |
| Density | Up to 3PB raw in 4U | Up to 1.5PB raw in 2U | Up to 736.8TB raw in 2U |
| Controller chassis form factor | 4U; 48 internal SSD slots | 2U; 24 internal SSD slots | 2U; 24 internal SSD slots |
| Power consumption (median) | 1800W | 693W | 680W |
Enhancements to NetApp StorageGRID
For many customers, the journey toward AI begins with modernizing data lakes and Hadoop environments. NetApp’s updated StorageGRID 11.9 software empowers users to scale and manage their expanding object storage workloads. Enhancements include increased bucket capacity and options for dedicated metadata or data nodes, boosting performance for small object workloads, and enabling more complex grid configurations.
Additionally, NetApp has introduced the SGF6112 storage system, which supports 60TB flash drives. This effectively doubles the density of object storage deployments and reduces rack space and cooling costs.
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