NetApp Guarantees Customers Will Use 50% Less Storage for Virtual Environments

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In an unprecedented announcement today, NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) offered customers a guarantee* that they will use 50% less storage in their virtual environments with NetApp® compared to traditional storage. NetApp wants to assure customers who choose NetApp and leverage its unique storage-efficiency technologies that they will reduce their overall storage usage while improving performance.

“The pressure for cost reduction has led to the rapid adoption of storage-efficiency technologies such as thin provisioning, deduplication, RAID-DP®, and Snapshot™, which come standard on NetApp systems,” said Jay Kidd, chief marketing officer of NetApp. “Our customers are consistently realizing unprecedented space savings greater than 70% with these technologies in their virtual infrastructures. We’re so confident about our space-saving features that we are assuring customers they will use at least 50% less storage in their virtual desktop and server environments.”

According to industry estimates, storage utilization rates average 25–40%. This means that the average IT organization does not use more than half the storage they buy. In addition, much of the data stored on disk is redundant. This is especially true in virtual server environments in which the same server operating system and application software are stored repeatedly in each virtual machine. Not only is this a waste of storage, it is a waste of power and floor space — all of which increase IT costs.

NetApp has long specialized in driving inefficiencies out of customers’ data centers. As NetApp’s expertise and feature-set have grown, it has proven to reduce 50% of customers’ storage, even for those on the leading edge of efficiency techniques using traditional storage. As a result, today NetApp is confident that customers will use 50% less storage, although the average customer savings are often greater. By following established best practices implemented by NetApp Professional Services and utilizing storage-efficiency technologies designed into the NetApp Data ONTAP® operating system, customers can save capacity and tap into the unrealized potential of their virtual infrastructure with these standard features:

• Thin Provisioning — Improve storage utilization with NetApp FlexVol® by aggregating unused capacity across storage volumes and share it dynamically across all applications as needs change.
• Deduplication — Quickly and easily eliminate redundant copies of data on primary, archive, and backup data to gain maximum value from current storage investments and better utilize existing storage capacity.
• RAID-DP — Safeguard data from double disk failure with RAID-DP, NetApp’s unique implementation of RAID 6 that provides protection without compromising performance, even for the most demanding applications. RAID-DP provides higher protection and performance levels than RAID 10 without the high-capacity overhead.
• Snapshot — Rapidly recover data from a point-in-time copy and better protect data with no performance impact and minimal consumption of storage space.

LandAmerica Financial Group, Inc. credits its move to NetApp centralized storage for a 70% reduction in overall capacity requirements. The company estimates that 30% savings come from eliminating local disk and taking advantage of thin provisioning, and that another 40% come from NetApp deduplication technology used to eliminate redundant data objects in both primary and backup data sets. To date, LandAmerica has achieved anywhere from 40% to 70% capacity savings by turning on deduplication across a range of data sets. NetApp Snapshot technology, which LandAmerica uses for rapid data backup and recovery, also minimizes storage consumption.

“If we showed you a graph of our disk usage over time, you’d see the incredible shrinking disk that’s a result of deploying NetApp storage," said Jack Kinsey, assistant vice president, Network Systems manager. "In the past, we’ve been in the very uncomfortable position of being maxed out in every vector in our data center — floor space, rack space, power, cooling. But today, utilizing blade servers, VMware®, and NetApp storage with space-reduction technologies, we’re positioned to avoid that predicament again.”

Customers anywhere in the world who purchase a new system for their virtual desktop and server environment can take advantage of this Program. If customers don't use 50% less storage after following best practices, NetApp will provide the additional capacity as needed to meet the shortfall at no additional charge, up to 50% of the original capacity purchased. Qualifying service delivery is available from NetApp Global Services or participating Authorized Professional Service Partners in Networked Storage for Virtualized Platforms.

For more information, visit www.netapp.com/guarantee, where you can access the new NetApp Storage Efficiency Calculator to evaluate your current environment and learn how NetApp storage-efficiency technologies can lead to higher storage utilization.

To learn more about the latest in NetApp and industry deduplication news, visit NetApp’s Dr. Dedupe Blog at http://blogs.netapp.com/drdedupe/.

Discuss this news in the NetApp Community, where you can exchange thoughts and ideas on a variety of topics with our community members. Collaborate with our company, engage in conversation with NetApp leaders and employees, and participate in our passion to go further, faster. Join now at www.netapp.com/us/communities/.

About NetApp

NetApp creates innovative storage and data management solutions that accelerate business breakthroughs and deliver outstanding cost efficiency. Discover our passion for helping companies around the world go further, faster at www.netapp.com.

*This guarantee and related Program is limited to the terms set forth in www.netapp.com/guarantee applicable only to prospective orders placed after the Program effective date and is dependent upon your compliance with the terms and conditions set forth in this document and any of the instruction sets and specifications set forth in the referenced documents. NetApp’s sole and exclusive liability and your sole and exclusive remedy associated with the terms of this guarantee and related Program is the provision by NetApp of the additional storage capacity as set forth in this guarantee and related Program.

Disclaimer - Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains “forward-looking statements” as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or implied in the forward-looking statements. NetApp advises readers that these potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: potential fluctuations in operating results; the ability to maintain and gain market or industry acceptance of the company's products; the company’s dependence on a limited number of customers; fluctuations and variances in customer’s overall products, product architectures and internal configurations; variations in product availability; fluctuations in software development and release schedules, customers demand for products and services, international economic, regulatory, political and other risks and uncertain benefits from strategic business combinations. More detailed information on these and additional factors which could affect the company's operating and financial results are described in NetApp’s Forms 10-K, 10-Q and other reports filed, or to be filed, with the Securities and Exchange Commission. NetApp urges all interested parties to read these reports to gain a better understanding of the business and other risks that the company faces. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made only as of the date hereof, and the company does not intend to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

NetApp, the NetApp logo, Go further, faster, Data ONTAP, FlexVol, RAID-DP, and Snapshot are trademarks or registered trademarks of NetApp, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. VMware is a registered trademark of VMware, Inc. All other brands or products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and should be treated as such.

Contacts:

NetApp
Roger Villareal, 408-822-1959
rogerv@netapp.com