NetApp has announced an addition to its Fabric-Attached Storage (FAS) 2000 family of arrays, an entry-level model with up to 432TB of capacity. Previously, NetApp’s mid-entry level product, the FAS2040, came with up to 136TB of capacity.
The new FAS2240 comes in two rack-mountable versions, a 2U (3.5-in high, FAS2240-2) or a 4U (7-in high, FAS2240-4) model. NetApp added 50% more memory in this array compared to its predecessor for a total of 12GB of NVRAM. The array can now also use 2.5-in solid-state drives (SSDs), along with traditional SAS, SATA and Fibre Channel drives.
The FAS2240 array now also includes 10Gbit Ethernet connectivity. Previous versions of the FAS2000 series arrays required an expansion card to host the higher-bandwidth port.
Martyn Molnar, Regional Sales Director of NetAPP, said the FAS2240 array line is targeted at the small- to medium-sized business market, with workforces of 100 to 200 people.
The FAS2000 series runs the latest version of NetApp’s Data ONTAP operating system to provide customers with a unified, scalable platform that supports multiple workloads at the same time. Data ONTAP v8.1 is the same OS now used for all of NetApp’s FAS/V-Series storage arrays, giving users the same view for file or block data.
The FAS2000 lineup uses Web-based tools that work with either Windows or Linux servers, and the arrays can manage storage for VMware. NetApp’s SMB offerings now include the FAS3210, FAS2240 and the FAS2040.
Along that same SMB theme, the FAS2040 also uses the most recent version of OnCommand System Manager 2.0. It offers a redesigned browser-based GUI with easy-to-use Wizards for common tasks such as volume configuration and management. The array is mainly aimed at serving Microsoft Exchange and SQL Server environments.
