NetApp's new flash portfolio promises faster run times for heavier workloads

NetApp has beefed up its enterprise flash storage portfolio with new products aiming to support heavier workloads but at faster rates and lower costs.

See also: NetApp shares up after better-than-expected fiscal Q3 earnings

At the heart of this is NetApp's new, purpose-built all-flash storage architecture, FlashRay.

Set to roll out in limited beta later this year with general availability promised for 2014, the core selling points are higher availability times matched with low-latency performance and more efficient storage infrastructures thanks to inline deduplication and compression.

For example, the EF540, is designed for data-heavy and performance-driven enterprise database applications. With this array, NetApp is promising run times up to 500 percent faster than traditional storage environments.

Furthermore, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company asserted that the included redundant architecture will eliminate downtime.

Additionally, NetApp rolled out a trio of new high-end data storage systems for enterprise customers, touted to increase input/output operations per second by over 80 percent and reduce latency by up to 90 percent.

Jeff Janukowicz, a research director at IDC covering solid state storage and enabling technologies, suggested in prepared remarks that NetApp is pushing all-flash arrays into the mainstream, writing that "a new class of arrays is unlocking flash’s full potential and delivering capabilities that accelerate the performance, reliability, and efficiency of enterprise data centers.

The NetApp EF540 flash array is available immediately, and the rest of the FlashRay product line is scheduled to follow early next year.