software upgrades

NetApp’s New OS ONTAP 8

Written by: Jeff Cassianna

NetApp positions itself for a WIN!

It is well known that NetApp’s newest OS, Data ONTAP (DOT) 8 introducers many enrichments over previous versions. Most notably its 64bit architecture which increases previous Aggregate limitations exponentially. The first release of DOT 8 was perceived as “bleeding edge” and untested which discouraged it’s adoption. On September 16^th, NetApp officially announced the release candidate (RC) for DOT 8’s 1^st maintenance release; 8.0.1. This is exciting news because, for nearly a year, NetApp employees and NetApp experts would express to me that 8.0.1 will inevitably be what NetApp designates as the “General Deployment” (GD) release of DOT 8. Typically, this is the magic designation that often results in a large increase in upgrades and is what ships with new FAS controllers.

News like this leads me to believe that NetApp is on the verge of combining a very sophisticated and stout software platform with a massive increase in storage provisioning functionality. This combination will greatly strengthen NetApp’s position in the large enterprise market resulting in them finally being able to compete with the top end products from EMC, HDS, etc.

For more information on DOT 8.0.1 read the release notes. Happy upgrading!

Written by: Micah Wyenn