NetApp adds framework for Hyper-V and Cisco

Storage specialist NetApp has joined Microsoft's Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track programme with a framework that is tuned for workloads virtualised on the company's hypervisor.

The architecture, which bundles Cisco servers, NetApp storage products and the Microsoft hypervisor, was announced on Monday. It is a Microsoft-validated design for hardware stacks that are expected to be part of Hyper-V virtualised environments.

"It's the first time [NetApp has] had a validated [Hyper-V] solution," John Rollason, a senior marketing manager at NetApp, told ZDNet UK. "This is a validated solution, so it's taking three vendors' content and validating it to work together."

The framework links together a series of elements: Cisco's Unified Computing System (UCS) servers and Nexus switches; NetApp unified storage systems; Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V R2; and Microsoft System Center components. It also loops in a soon-to-launch NetApp OnCommand 3.0 plug-in for Microsoft software, which is set to be released in August.

With the announcement, NetApp has heightened its competition with EMC. The storage rival makes VMware-tuned infrastructure packages with Cisco under the vBlock banner, while NetApp now makes Microsoft-tuned packages.

SAP-tuned FlexPod

In separate news on Tuesday, NetApp introduced a FlexPod tailored specifically for SAP's enterprise software. The FlexPod is based on the same essential hardware architecture as the Hyper-V packages, but bases its virtualisation around VMware technology.

The FlexPod is available in a variant that promises secure multi-tenancy, so multiple production environments for differing SAP applications can be managed from the same hardware.