WIXLIB

DATASHEETNetAppAFF A-SeriesLeading the futureof flash

Data-driven organizations require an agile and efficientIT infrastructure to meet the demand for fast, secure,and continuous data access. A fundamental first step inundertaking an IT transformation is to modernize yourinfrastructure with all-flash storage to improve speedand responsiveness for critical business applications.New workloads, such as data analytics, artificialintelligence (AI), and deep learning (DL), demandextreme performance that first-generation flash systemscan't deliver. Additionally, more and more organizationsare adopting a “cloud first” strategy, which meansthey need enterprise-grade data services for a sharedenvironment across on-premises data centers andthe cloud. As a result, modern all-flash arrays mustprovide robust data services, integrated data protection,seamless scalability, and new levels of performance—plus deep application and cloud integration.Cloud-connected flash storagepowered by ONTAPIT departments need smart, powerful, trusted solutionsthat take advantage of modern cloud technologies.NetApp AFF A-Series systems are designed to helporganizations transform their infrastructure morequickly and fuel data-driven strategies. Powered byNetApp ONTAP data management software, AFFsystems deliver the industry-leading performance,superior flexibility, and best-in-class data services andcloud integration to help you accelerate, manage, andprotect your business-critical data in the hybrid cloud.A wide range of customers, from enterprise to midsizebusinesses, rely on AFF to: Simplify operations with seamless datamanagement, on the premises and in the cloud. Speed up existing and emerging applications. Keep business-critical data available,protected, and secure.2DatasheetKey benefitsAccelerate applications Speed up your critical applications with lightningfast end-to-end NVMe enterprise all-flash array. Run artificial intelligence and machinelearning applications with lowest latency. Support twice as many workloads and cutapplication response time in half with amodern NVMe-based SAN infrastructure.Reduce data center costs Minimize your data center footprint by storingup to 2PB of data in a 4U compact system. Save SSD storage by 5 to 10 times withinline data reduction technologies. Reduce power and cooling, rack space,and support costs dramatically.Simplify IT operations Unify data services across SAN and NASenvironments, both on the premises and in the cloud. Set up and configure a complete systemand serve data within 10 minutes. Safeguard your data with best-in-class integrated dataprotection and seamless cloud backup and recovery.AFF A-Series systems, whether entry-level orhigh-end, support end-to-end NVMe technologies,from NVMe-attached SSDs to front-end hostconnectivity of both NVMe over Fibre Channel(NVMe/FC) and NVMe over TCP (NVMe/TCP).These systems deliver the industry’s lowestlatency for an enterprise all-flash array, makingthem a superior choice for running the mostdemanding workloads and AI/DL applications.With a simple software upgrade to the modernNVMe/FC or NVMe/TCP SAN infrastructure, youcan run more workloads with faster responsetimes, without disruption or data migration.

2.5PiB effective in 4U1.4M IOPSAFF A-SERIES SYSTEM15Xless power/cooling37XSmaller footprint67% lower support costsHYBRID FLASH ARRAYFigure 1) Benefits of modernizing with all-flash.Increase operational efficiencyfor your businessIT departments are striving to make budgets go furtherand to allow IT staff to focus on new value-addedprojects rather than on day-to-day IT management.AFF systems reduce data center cost by simplifyingIT operations. The entry-level AFF A250 systemsdeliver best-in-class performance and efficiency tomidsize business customers at low cost, helpingyou consolidate workloads and eliminate silos.Provision storage in minutesNetApp AFF systems offer broad support of applicationecosystems and deep integration for enterpriseapplications, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI),databases, and server virtualization. They supportOracle, Microsoft SQL Server, VMware, SAP, MySQL,and more. You can provision storage in less than10 minutes with NetApp ONTAP System Manager(formerly OnCommand System Manager).Infrastructure management tools simplify andautomate common storage tasks so that you can: Easily provision and rebalance workloads bymonitoring clusters and nodes. Use one-click automation and self-service forprovisioning and data protection. Upgrade OS and firmware with a single-click. Import LUNs from third-party storage arrays directlyinto an AFF system to seamlessly migrate data.3DatasheetIn addition, the NetApp Active IQ Digital Advisor toolenables you to optimize your NetApp systems withpredictive analytics and proactive support. Fueledby NetApp’s massive user base, AI and machinelearning create actionable insights that help youprevent problems, optimize your configuration,save time, and make smarter decisions.Achieve industry-leading storage savingsNetApp employs various capabilities to promoteoptimal capacity savings and to reduce your TCO. AFFsystems' support for SSDs with multistream writetechnology, combined with advanced SSD partitioning,provides maximum usable capacity, regardless of thetype of data that you store. Thin provisioning; NetAppSnapshot copies; and inline data reduction features,such as deduplication, compression, and compaction,provide substantial additional space savings—withoutaffecting performance—enabling you to purchasethe least amount of storage capacity possible.Build your hybrid cloud with easeWhen your organization builds a data fabric poweredby NetApp technology, you can simplify and integratedata management across cloud and on-premisesenvironments to meet business demands and gaina competitive edge. With AFF, you can connect tomore clouds for more data services, data tiering,caching, and disaster recovery. You can also: Maximize performance and reduce overallstorage costs by automatically tiering colddata to the cloud with FabricPool. Instantly deliver data to support efficientcollaboration across your hybrid cloud. Protect your data by taking advantage of AmazonSimple Storage Service (Amazon S3) cloudresources—on premises and in the public cloud. Improve read performance for data that'sshared widely throughout your organizationand across hybrid cloud deployments.Accelerate applications andfuture-proof your infrastructureIn the modern data center, IT is charged with improvingperformance for business-critical workloads, scalingwithout disruption as the business grows, and enablingthe business to take on new data-driven initiatives.

Alibaba CloudAmazon Web ServicesGoogle Cloud PlatformIBM Cloud Object StorageMicrosoft AzureNetAppStorageGRIDCOLD DATAPrivate CloudCOLD DATAPublic CloudFigure 2) Automatic tiering to the cloud.Get the best performance for your mostdemanding applicationsNetApp AFF systems deliver industry-leadingperformance proven by SPC-1 and SPEC SFS industrybenchmarks, making them ideal for demanding, highlytransactional applications such as Oracle, MicrosoftSQL Server, MongoDB databases, VDI, and servervirtualization. With the power of front-end NVMe/FC andNVMe/TCP host connectivity combined with back-endNVMe-attached SSDs, the high-end AFF A900 systemdelivers 50% higher performance compared with itspredecessor and latency as low as 100µs. Based on ahigh-resiliency design, the AFF A900 system enablesin-chassis nondisruptive upgrades from its predecessorand advanced reliability, availability, and serviceability(RAS) that keep your critical data always available. Italso provides all the core data management and dataprotection capabilities for your enterprise applicationswith the ONTAP Enterprise Edition software. The AFFA800 system also delivers high-end performance, butin a compact form that's especially suited for EDA andmedia/entertainment workloads. The midrange AFFA400 system puts outstanding performance within yourbudget. Its hardware acceleration technology significantlyenhances performance and storage efficiency. And theentry-level system AFF A250 provides 40% moreperformance and 33% more efficiency at no extra costcompared with its predecessor. You can also: Drive your mission-critical SAN workloads withsymmetric active-active host connectivity thatdelivers continuous availability and instant failover.4Datasheet Consolidate workloads on AFF systems, whichcan deliver up to 14.4 million IOPS at 1ms latencyin a cluster with a truly unified scale-out architecture.You also get built-in adaptive quality of service(QoS) that safeguards SLAs in multiworkloadand multitenant environments. Manage massively scalable NAS containers of up to20PB and 400 billion files with a single namespace. Improve the speed and productivity of collaborationacross multiple locations and increase datathroughput for read-intensive applications withNetApp FlexCache software.Modernize with advanced NVMeDesigned specifically for flash, AFF A-Series allflash systems deliver industry-leading performance,density, scalability, security, and network connectivity.As the first enterprise-grade storage systems tosupport both NVMe/TCP and NVMe/FC, AFF A-Seriessystems boost performance with modern networkconnectivity. With NVMe/TCP, which uses thecommonly available Ethernet infrastructure, you don’thave to invest in new hardware to take advantageof the faster host connectivity. With NVMe/FC, youcan get twice the IOPS and cut application responsetime in half compared with traditional FC. Thesesystems support a range of ecosystems, includingVMware, Microsoft Windows 10, and Linux, withstorage path failover. For most customers, integratingNVMe/FC and NVMe/TCP into an existing SANis a simple, nondisruptive software upgrade.14.4MIOPSTo Host putNVMe SSDFigure 3) Industry-leading NVMe performance.