Powerlink

April 2014

Competitive Selling Guide: EMC VNXe vs. NetApp FAS2200 Series

NetApp FAS2200 Series Overview
Network Appliance FAS2200 Series is positioned as filer, application and
unified storage for small to medium sized businesses and departments of
larger companies, as well as government applications including federal,
education, state and local, and DoD tactical deployments.
In June, 2012 NetApp announced a consolidated FAS2200 entry series,
including a new product, the FAS2220 to replace the FAS2020, along with
support for Flash Pool technology. The FAS2200 products do not support
filer head-based Flash Cache PCI cards.

Questions to Ask: Setting Traps for NetApp

FAS2200 Series
Ask NetApp how the FAS2200 series simplifies storage management
for the non-specialist IT environment. NetApp employs an array of tools to
manage systems and provide various pieces of their functionality, resulting in
a substantial learning curve for new users.

Highlights of the FAS2200 line include:

FAS2240-2 and FAS2240-4: Two 24-drive system products supporting

2.5 inch and 3.5 inch drives respectively. The FAS2240 is positioned at
the upper end of the FAS2200 series and competes with VNXe3200
and VNX5200.

FAS2220 entry product: Offered with bundled software and drives in

aggressively priced entry models.

Why VNX3200e and VNX5200 over FAS2200 Series?

With the introduction of the VNXe3200, EMC extends Flash 1st hybrid
technology to the entry unified segment, combining flash-optimized data
management with the proven ease of use and unified storage management
environment of the VNXe Series. The VNXe enables SMBs and
departmental organizations to achieve complete SAN and NAS storage
consolidation while reaping the benefits of flash performance and efficiency.

Application-driven wizards (VNXe) use built-in best practices to

streamline provisioning of Microsoft Exchange.

FAST VP and FAST Cache to optimize data placement and use of

game-changing Flash technology.

Achieve superior Microsoft application integration and automation with

EMC Storage Integrator (ESI).

Integration with VMware and Hyper-V that empowers server admins to

manage their own storage resources, rather than simply seeing the
end-to-end mapping.

Extensive replication technology for CDP and CRR (VNX5200)

EMC ConfidentialInternal and Partner Use Only

Unisphere has been designed from the ground up to be intuitive and

easy to use, with application and server virtualization wizards to guide
users through the provisioning process. Integration of replication with
storage provisioning results in consistency and adherence to best
practices for data protection.

Ask NetApp how they tailor capacity and configuration to users needs
for performance and high capacity. With the FAS2200, NetApp is offering
expansion enclosures which hold large quantities (24) of only a single drive
type. These large capacity enclosures, combined with the low 60-drive
maximum, severely limit flexibility in configuring a mix of drive types to meet
application needs.

With VNXe and VNX, users can easily mix performance and near-line
SAS drives within the system as well as Flash drives to optimize
performance, cost and energy efficiency.

Ask NetApp to articulate their flash strategy- NetApp Flash Pools are not
auto-tiering, although they will promote this as their Virtual Storage Tiering
(VST) strategy. The SSD that is contained in the pool is a cache and not an
actual storage tier. Additionally, with only two drive technologies supported
per pool (SSD and SATA or SSD and SAS) customers miss out on the
benefits of an effective tiering strategy.

VNX platforms take advantage of advanced data management to

maximize read-from-memory performance by fully integrating system
cache, SSD-based cache and programmatic placement of the hottest
data on SSDs. Like the VNX, the VNXe3200 provides FAST VP and
FAST Cache support, while the entry FAS2200 platforms do not
provide the Flash Cache capability of the larger FAS systems.

Powerlink

April 2014

Positioning VNXe3200 and VNX5200 Against NetApp FAS2200: A Mapping Summary

Position
this VNX
Model

.. When
NetApp
Positions

Max. Drive
Count

Supported
Protocols

VNX

FAS

VNXe

VNXe3200

FAS2240

50*/
150

144

VNXe3200

FAS2220

50*/
150

60

VNX5200

FAS2240 w/
replication

125

144

Main Software Suites/Features Positioned

FAS

10Gb E
iSCSI,
8Gb/s FC,
CIFS, NFS

1Gb E,
10Gb E or
8Gb/s FC,
CIFS, NFS,
iSCSI
1Gb E, CIFS,
NFS, iSCSI

8Gb/s FC,
10Gb iSCSI
FCoE,
CIFS, NFS,

1Gb E,
10Gb E or
8Gb/s FC,
CIFS, NFS,
iSCSI

VNXe

FAS2240

VNX5300

Management: Unisphere for VNXe

Zero-cost software: Protocols, file
deduplication and compression,
and Thin Provisioning,
Snapshots (VNXe3150)
Software Suites
Local Protection
Remote Protection
Application Protection
Security and Compliance
Software Packs:
Total Efficiency Pack (3150)
Total Protection Pack (3300)

Management: Data Ontap 8.1

System Mgr, Operations Mgr
Zero-cost software: Snapshot,
Open Systems SnapVault, Thin
Provisioning, Protocols, Operations
Mgr, FlexVol, FlexCache, FlexShare,
NDMP, Data Dedupe, NearStore,
SyncMirror, Multipath I/O, and
MultiStore
Optional Software & Suites:
SnapManager Suite, SnapRestore,
SnapMirror, FlexClone, SnapVault,
Software Packages:
Complete Bundle

Management: Unisphere for VNX

Zero-cost software: Protocols, File
Deduplication and Compression,
Block Compression, Thin
Provisioning, SAN Copy
Software Packages: FAST Suite,
Security and Compliance Suite,
Local Protection Suite, Remote
Protection Suite
Software Packs: Total Protection
Pack; Total Value Pack;
Total Efficiency Pack

* Initial support

High-Level VNX Family/FAS2200 Comparison

Capability
Simple
Unified (file, block)
Application-driven wizards
Virtualization affinity
Efficient
Thin provisioning
Auto-tiering
FAST Cache or Flash Cache
File dedupe/compression
Block dedupe/compression
Flash drive support
Affordable
Complete consolidation
Single Controller model
Support Ecosystem

VNXe3200

VNX5200

FAS2200

x
FAST VP,
Cache

FAST VP,
Cache

EMC ConfidentialInternal and Partner Use Only

NetApp FUD
or Claim
Simple and easy
to use

provides extensive
data protection
software

Flash Pools

x
x

NetApp leads in
data efficiency

NetApp FUD, Facts, and U-turns

Fact and U-Turn
Fact: NetApp claims the FAS2200 systems provide a simple user
environment, however the ONTAP interface is the same one used
for their midrange platforms.
U-turn: VNXe provides an interface that is optimize for the IT
generalist user, rather than the storage specialist. Application-driven
and virtualization-aware provisioning provides users with the
ultimate in simplicity and application workflow.
Fact: NetApp delivers storage management via a plethora of
applications and interfaces.
U-turn: VNXe Series provides superior management efficiency with a
single interface that also manages elements such as snapshots and
security. VNX delivers the most functional single replication solution
with RecoverPoint.
Fact: NetApp lacks the auto-tiering necessary to efficiently utilize
multiple drive types efficiently, while optimizing use of Flash.
U-turn: EMC Flash 1st technology is architected to translate Flash
and storage tiering into efficiency and performance benefits.