NetApp has released a new version of its flagship storage operating system – clustered Data ONTAP. The new software gives organizations and cloud service providers the capability to rapidly and cost effectively deliver new services and capacity with maximum application uptime. Clustered Data ONTAP 8.2 cuts through the performance, availability, and efficiency limits of traditional hardware silos, empowering IT to non-disruptively align the storage infrastructure with changing business and application demands.
Software-defined storage (SDS) is one component of the emerging software-defined data center (SDDC) model, which focuses on agility in delivering IT services to application owners while improving operational and IT resource efficiency. Akin to virtual machines and server virtualization, clustered Data ONTAP abstracts physical storage into a set of Storage Virtual Machines (SVM; formerly known as vServer). This allows NetApp to deliver native multi-tenant, policy-based storage services via programmable APIs and application integrations. Clustered Data ONTAP is claimed to be the first storage and data management solution that makes the promise of SDS attainable today.
“CIOs are moving from builders of applications and operators of data centers to brokers of information services to the business,” said Jay Kidd, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, NetApp.
“This new role requires technologies that can speed IT response time and drive operational and resource efficiency. Clustered Data ONTAP fills this need today, providing the key building block that delivers the benefits of software-defined storage models and will replace existing slow and inefficient siloed approaches. Our new software gives IT unsurpassed agility, including the flexibility to deploy across multiple platforms,” he said.