NetApp intros virtual storage appliance

data and how it is managed, because virtualisation has completely changed its nature, eWeek reports.

That brainwork has resulted in what Hitz calls Agile Data Infrastructure, which came out 20 June and serves as the new descriptor for the latest version of the Sunnyvale, California, company's Data Ontap storage software.

The Data Ontap Edge virtual storage appliance and Infinite Volumes are enabled by NetApp's Data Ontap 8.1.1 operating system. NetApp disclosed some 8.1.1 features - including Flash Pools caching - when it launched its FAS2220 entry-level storage system earlier this month. NetApp expects Ontap 8.1.1 to be generally available throughout its FAS unified storage within a few months.

Data Ontap Edge is a NetApp-branded version of a virtual appliance NetApp has sold outside the US through Fujitsu bundled with a Fujitsu Primergy blade server. Edge runs as a virtual machine on VMware vSphere.

Data Ontap Edge includes Snapshot, SnapRestore, SnapVault, FlexVol, FlexClone and deduplication technologies. It provides iSCSI, CIFS and NFS protocol access but not Fibre Channe, The Register notes.

NetApp has taken over a now-discarded HP marketing theme, saying this new version of Ontap makes IT agile. Its concept of having a single and multi-purpose storage infrastructure with one set of management and data protection tools is relatively unchanged although it is being amended by the inclusion of the E-Series for applications needing more data access speed.