VMworld 2012 San Francisco / Barcelona

 

 

Today NetApp will present a new baby FlexPod called the Express Pod. It’s a small FlexPod ideal for smaller customers for whom the full scale FlexPod is too big and expensive.

In April 2012 I wrote:

So, Cisco and NetApp now include cheaper storage and server components in FlexPod solutions, this leaves the ever expensive Cisco Nexus 5000 network components needed. I would love to see Cisco and NetApp take the last step and also introduce an entry-level Cisco Nexus network based on e.g. the Cisco Nexus 3000 series switches.

It looks like they listened because the new (minimum) Express Pod configuration consists of:

  • 2 x Cisco Nexus 3000 switches;
  • 2 x Cisco C220 rack servers;
  • 1 x NetApp FAS2220.
By using Cisco Nexus 3000 switches and eliminating the expensive components like the Fabric Interconnects and the Nexus 5000 switches you need to create a FlexPod, they were able to drop the price of the new Express Pod under $100k.

 

Scalability?

You can scale up to multiple servers depending on the number of ports you have available on the Cisco Nexus 3000 switches. You can scale the storage by adding multiple disk-shelves up to te limit of the NetApp FAS2220 (48 shelves and 180TB RAW) or use a NetApp FAS2240 instead (120 shelves and 374TB).