2017 End of Life: Difficult Times for NetApp Owners

Again this year 2017, many storage models go from NetApp End of Life. This year there are unfortunately a lot of storage systems that were very popular with small and medium-sized companies. This is a difficult decision for many SMEs. Should they replace the hardware and buy new storage systems or should they decide against it and keep their storage systems.

Keeping the old hardware because it still serves very well is a tempting thought, because new acquisition means new investment costs. Especially if the capacities of the existing storage are still sufficient and the performance is not a limiting factor, the new investment does not seem sensible. The only obstacle is the lack of support from the manufacturer.

But what can medium-sized companies do to avoid having to buy new storage systems, but still get support for them?

What many companies do not know, especially in the SME segment, is that there are very good alternatives to classic manufacturer maintenance. These alternatives are called TPM (Third Party Maintenance). A TPM company is a manufacturer of independent maintenance providers that specializes in hardware maintenance with its own technicians, spare parts warehouses and logistics. In other words, a TPM is a maintenance specialist that is not tied to the End of Life dates. As long as the hardware specialist still has enough spare parts in stock, they can also offer hardware maintenance. As a rule, TPM companies can maintain and support hardware for at least seven to ten years after the EOL expires.

One of these TPM companies is Hardwarewatung.com. With more than 45 spare parts warehouses in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, they can not only offer EOL hardware maintenance throughout the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland). They can even guarantee service levels of up to four hours (Call-to-Repair), 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

If you want to see the full End of Life list for NetApp hardware, please visit our End of Life Center

The NetApp DS2246 Expansion Shelf was a bestseller. It accommodates 24 Small Form Factor SAS 2.5″ disks in just two height units and achieves an excellent performance to capacity ratio. Compared to the DS4243 Disk Shelf, the DS2246 doubles storage capacity per height unit. At the same time, it reduces power consumption by 30-50 percent. Unfortunately, the disc size for the popular Expansion Shelf is limited to 2.5″ SAS 10k RPM discs with 450GB to 900GB. Despite the small disks, the NetApp DS2246 is still in use at many companies and provides excellent services.

With the End of Life date on 30.04.2017, many companies will have to consider whether they want to purchase a new storage system or a maintenance contract for a TPM.

The NetApp DS4343 is a 24-compartment disk shelf for SAS or SATA hard drives on four height units. Either 7.2k RPM SATA disks with 1TB to 2TB high-capacity or 3.5″ SAS 15K RMP with 300GB, 450GB or 600GB can be used. The use of 100GB Solid State Disks (SSD) is also possible.

The End of Life date is also set for 30.04.2017.

The NetApp FAS2020 Filer makes it possible to manage server and application environments on a small budget. The FAS2000 series are highly scalable systems for medium and large enterprises. The storage system offers a cost-effective solution for data protection with intelligent management software and integrated data access at block and data access level. The storage server requires only two height units and is cluster-capable. In the cluster, performance can be doubled while ensuring secure redundancy. With 10/100/1000Base T Ethernet and 4/2/1 Gigabit FB (Fibre Channel) interfaces, up to 12 internal SAS disks can be added and with a dual SAS port, additional DS4243 SAS or SATA expansions can be added.

The End of Life Dates for FAS2020 are scheduled on 30.06.2017 and for FAS2040 on 31.10.2017.

The NetApp FAS3100 storage server is a six-height storage system that is cluster-ready. The capacities range from the smallest system, the FAS3140, to 420TB with 420 discs, the middle model, FAS3160, 672TB with 672 hard disks and up to 840TB at 840 disks for the largest expansion of the FAS3170. Up to 60 disk shelves can be connected. The NetApp FAS3100 Series also offers Double Parity RAID-DP for more data security and capacity utilization than RAID5 and RAID 1 + 0.

The End of Life date is 31.03.2017.

The NetApp FAS6040 and FAS6080 filers are highly scalable storage systems designed to address the largest data center application environments. With up to 1176TB of storage capacity, they are only suitable for large companies that require access to high capacity and very fast access times. The FAS6000 Series can meet multiple requirements – SAN, NAS, primary storage, and secondary storage – in a single platform. Supported protocols include FCP, NFS, CIFS, HTTP, and iSCSI.

The End of Life date is also set for 30.04.2017.