NetApp announced the integration and certification of its storage platforms with VMware® vSphere^TM 4 in conjunction with VMware’s announcement of vSphere 4 at a press conference held today at VMware headquarters. VMware vSphere 4 is the industry’s first operating system for building the internal cloud and enables the next generation of flexible, reliable IT services. Combined with NetApp® storage solutions, vSphere 4 provides customers the foundation to run their data centers in a more flexible and cost-effective way.

VMware vSphere 4 is a platform for building out cloud infrastructures that aggregate CPU, networking, and storage resources into a seamless, flexible, and dynamic cloud that delivers maximum efficiency, control, and choice to customers. NetApp provides the storage foundation for VMware customers to transform their storage into a highly efficient pool of resources that can scale and adapt to any need. Now customers can take advantage of the following benefits in their VMware vSphere 4 environments:

• Improved efficiency. NetApp storage technologies such as deduplication and thin provisioning help customers achieve greater than 50% infrastructure savings in their virtualized server and storage environment. Now VMware customers can take advantage of NetApp’s Virtualization Guarantee* Program that will enable them to use 50% less storage in their environments with NetApp storage compared to traditional storage arrays.
• Better control. NetApp provides secure separation of network and storage resources in multitenant environments to enable hosted IT services. Customers can receive a real-time view of their entire VMware vSphere 4 environment—from virtual machine to volume—using VMware vCenter^TM Server and optimize their utilization. Additionally, customers can simplify management with automated cloning, provisioning, and backup and recovery for virtualized servers and storage. Together, these capabilities dramatically improve control of the data center environment through better availability, security, and manageability.
• Greater choice. The NetApp unified architecture gives customers the flexibility to match the right performance and price point using any storage protocol to address their changing business needs. Customers who invested in other storage solutions can use NetApp V-Series to unify their existing infrastructure under a common storage architecture and take full advantage of the benefits of the powerful features of Data ONTAP® to improve storage efficiency and dramatically simplify data management. Customers now have the flexibility and choice to do what best suits their needs, now and in the future.

Data center customers are being challenged to do more with less in today’s economic environment. In most instances, only projects that show immediate ROI within 6 to 12 months are being approved. As budgets are cut or remain flat and IT staff are being asked to increase service levels, virtualization has proven to reduce both capital and operating expenditures and provide IT staff the required flexibility to rapidly respond to evolving business challenges.

“We believe that VMware vSphere 4 will bring enterprises a nondisruptive and pragmatic path to the cloud,” said Parag Patel, vice president, Alliances, VMware. “NetApp has been a valued, trusted technology collaborator in helping customers eliminate unnecessary inefficiencies and better utilize their existing infrastructure investments. Together, we plan to help dramatically simplify the landscape of today’s data centers and enable customers to rapidly deliver adaptive and reliable IT services.”

“VMware’s efforts to tie all the diverse cloud components together into a single managed entity is directly aligned with our vision of how the data center is evolving,” said Jay Kidd, chief marketing officer at NetApp. “Just as VMware vSphere 4 is the foundation for cloud computing, we believe NetApp provides customers with the best storage platform for delivering the next generation of IT services. We’re excited about the positive benefit VMware vSphere 4 is going to have for our customers. Together, NetApp and VMware provide our joint customers a solid path to cloud computing to better manage the complexities of their data centers.”

To hear more about how NetApp and VMware will provide the foundation for the next evolution of the data center, watch this video with Jay Kidd at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSRfNlJzqBk.

For customers who want to get there faster, NetApp Virtualization Services for VMware environments can deliver a smooth transition to the optimal infrastructure. NetApp’s dedicated Professional Services team and Authorized Professional Service Partners have the expertise to assess customer environments, provide valuable insights, and create and execute a plan that will help customers achieve their goals with the least cost, minimum risk, and the least disruption to their ongoing operations.

Product Availability

NetApp storage platforms and software products such as SANscreen® VM Insight and MultiStore® are certified for VMware vSphere 4 and available immediately directly from NetApp and channel partners. The NetApp Virtualization Guarantee* Program for vSphere is also available immediately. For more information, visit www.netapp.com/guarantee, where you can access program details, including Guarantee Program terms and conditions, FAQs, technical resources, best practices, and the new NetApp Storage Efficiency Calculator to evaluate your current environment and learn how NetApp storage efficiency technologies can lead to higher storage utilization.

For more information on how NetApp SANscreen can optimize your virtualized data center, read the white paper located at http://www.netapp.com/us/library/analyst-reports/ar-optimizing-virtualized-data-center.html.

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