Flexpod, NetApp's version of unified data centre architecture

BANGALORE, INDIA: Storage player NetApp today rolled out its storage, network and virtualization bundle, Flexpod, in India, which is seen as its answer to unified data centre architecture.

While launching Flexpod, Syed Masroor, pre-sales manager, NetApp India, said: “Enterprises are today moving away from siloed infrastructure to a shared, unified storage architecture owing to constrained IT budgets, which is by far not meeting the growing needs of data storage.”

NetApp Flexpod, a pre-sized, validated and standardized data centre architecture, developed in collaboration with network vendor Cisco and virtualisation player Vmware, can be seen as an effort to counter EMC's vBlock.

vBlock also shares Cisco and VMware as technology partners, similar to that of NetApp's Flexpod. Both the storage systems share a few other features as well, such as VMware's vSphere and vCenter server virtualisation applications, and Cisco's Unified Computing System servers and Nexus switches.

When asked if Flexpod can be a competitor to EMC's vBlock, Rajesh Janey, president, NetApp India, SAARC said: “Parallely, yes. However, FlexPod is different."

He also added that FlexPod provides a more precise solution to specific workload needs and can be configured with existing infrastructure in the customer’s environment. With FlexPod, customers can protect their investment in existing technology and expand on their capabilities with better efficiencies in their data centre, flexible architecture to scale with future needs and lower deployment risks with prevalidated components.

NetApp's FlexPod system will be bundled with FAS3200 and FAS6020 arrays.

Along with the new unified data centre architecture, Flexpod, NetApp also launched three new high-end storage systems of its FAS/V6200 series and two of its mid-range FAS/V3200 series arrays.

These launches are part of the company's a much larger portfolio of launches announced in India today, also marking the tenth anniversary of this, 17 year old, company in the country. Terming it as the 'largest ever launch' by NetApp, which spans over 75 per cent of its product line, this was first announced in the US earlier this month.