101 Data Solutions

NetApp End Of Life Storevault S550

Final shipping date for S550 chassis will be end of week 1 in March 2009. (Although this can only be an approximation, because it is a while stocks last situation).

For existing Storevault customers NetApp recommend purchasing future upgrades now, licenses including replication, Snap Restore. 101 Data Solutions also recommends purchasing support renewals or extending support contracts now to maximise the ‘in service’ life span of the Storevault unit. Please note that support will not be possible to extend past March 2012.

101 Data Solutions currently have a good number of 750GB drives for S550’s in stock.  So if Netapp sells out of drives, it is possible to purchase these from us. These disks cannot be used in 1TB drive systems, but could format down to go in lower capacity units.

As an alternative to the Storevault S550 we highly recommend the FAS2020 or FAS2050, NetApp have released cost effective bundles similar to the value of the Storvault S550, the entry level bundle starts as low as £8,000 for 6×500Gb, single controller, iSCSI, CIFS, SnapRestore, deduplication, flexshare, Thin Provisioning, Dial Home and basic onsite installation.

For Snap Mirror users, it is possible to replicate from an S550/S500 to FAS2020 or FAS2050, both ONTAP and Mirroring software are compatible.  As a FAS2020/FAS2050 you will also be able to replicate back to the Storevault unit although this is not supported by NetApp.

See our NetApp FAS2020 and NetApp FAS2050 pages.

101 Data  Solutions have managed to get hold of the official NetApp Communique, we will post any official information from Netapp on our news section as it arrives:

Product Communiqué CPC-0901-01: End of Availability – S Family/S550 (formerly StoreVault)
January 28, 2009
For your information and planning, this notice is meant to inform you about some NetApp products that have come to the end of their availability and/or some products that are no longer available from our suppliers.

This notice announces the end of availability of S family/S550 systems. Starting with the March 2009 release of eConfigurator in CE/PE, the S family/S550 systems will no longer be available for quoting and sale. Actual last quote, order & ship date will be limited to quantity-available-on-hand for S family/S550 systems. Date subject to change without prior notice.

Suggested alternatives for S family/S550 systems:

FAS2020 series systems are the ideal alternative replacements for the S family/S550 systems.

NetApp will launch new FAS2020 product bundles to target the MSE market.  These bundles will be available through our channel partners in February 2009 and will readily address S-family customers’ requests within midsize businesses for additional product features and cost-effective price/performance.

These products are best suited for MSE customers who are looking for an enterprise-type product and a lower price point that is easy to order, support, and install. NetApp partners, who traditionally sold only S family products now, have a competitive offering for their customers and prospects with the new FAS2020 and the channel-only NetApp® Select™ Bundles. These products provide the same features as larger enterprise products, are available at different price points, and have entry-level configurations.

Highlights for FAS2000 series: high-capacity, low-cost SATA drives internal to the base controller system; increased total system storage scalability that enables better deployment flexibility for our customers. The FAS2020 is a scalable, real-estate-efficient, value-based system that can be deployed in a variety of IT environments as both SAN (iSCSI and FC) and NAS storage.

Please contact your NetApp sales or channel partner representative for details of the new FAS2020 Bundles for MSE.

Please note that although we are announcing the end of availability of these products, NetApp will continue to support them for a limited time. The effective end-of-availability, end-of-support, and last ship dates for all NetApp products are on the End of Availability page.

Contact 101 Data Solutions for more information.