Business & Money | Sunday 16 October, 2016 1:08 pm |

The exponential growth of enterprises, SMBs and vertical industries in the Middle East, continues to ignite pervasive and persistent IT issues as organizations grapple with how best to utilise and leverage their single most important asset – data. With the evolution of various data retention requirements and industry regulations, further growth can be impacted.

 

In response to this need, NetApp, a leading global storage and data management solutions provider, is showcasing its latest solutions and services that enable users to seamlessly manage data across different IT platforms, at GITEX Technology Week, from October 16-20. The focus is on flash, cloud, converged infrastructure and software-defined storage (SDS).

 

“With a team of experts based locally and a reliable network of partners, NetApp’s solutions and services transforms the IT landscape in this region. We understand that storage requirements for all companies are not the same, hence, we focus on delivering customized solutions, comprising of flash and hybrid storage arrays, that enable our customers to manage workloads and ensure data security,” said Fadi Kanafani, regional director for Middle East and Africa at NetApp.

 

“GITEX is the ideal platform for us to showcase our latest innovations around data management. We are excited to connect with new prospects, further developing our brand awareness, and educating partners and customers around what they require to protect their data,” added Kanafani.

 

The new NetApp ONTAP 9 software, flash systems and expanded public cloud support, being exhibited at GITEX, will provide the modern foundation to help customers maximise the value of their data in the hybrid cloud.

 

NetApp delivers the industry’s broadest portfolio of all-flash arrays, providing customers with unrivalled scale, speed and data services for next-generation enterprise and webscale data centres. NetApp was recently named a Leader in the 2016 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Solid-State Arrays, based on its ability to execute and its completeness of vision[1].

 

This year, NetApp also won the Flash Memory Summit Best of Show for Most Innovative Flash Memory Customer Implementation and swept all six brand leadership categories for all-flash NAS and unified SAN/NAS arrays in the 2016 Brand Leader Survey[2].

Key GITEX announcements:

 

·         With the acquisition of SolidFire, NetApp offers customers an opportunity to reduce cost and complexity by safely consolidating mission-critical applications onto a single storage platform. SolidFire is the only product in the market that enables Amazon Web Services-like cloud storage and “aaS” experiences on premises for both enterprise customers and service providers. NetApp SolidFire’s scale-out, 100 percent predictable, and fully automated platform gives customers total flexibility and its infrastructure integrations increase productivity.

 

• SDS breaks down the physical barriers that bind data to specific hardware, allowing IT infrastructure teams to be more responsive and business decision makers to become more flexible. NetApp delivers SDS with ONTAP software, the industry’s most comprehensive application integration, and programmable APIs for seamless workflow automation. The new NetApp ONTAP 9 software offers built-in encryption for improved data security, support for massively scalable high-performance NAS containers and simplified provisioning for enterprise applications.  Expanded choice with ONTAP Cloud now supports the Microsoft Azure public cloud, complementing existing support for the AWS public cloud. 

 

·         NetApp also refreshed its industry-leading portfolio of ONTAP-powered all-flash and hybrid arrays, to provide customers with unparalleled data solutions as they transform their IT.

 

• Jointly developed by NetApp and Cisco, FlexPod, is the most agile and secure converged infrastructure platform to drive flash, big data, IoT and SAP business projects and vertical growth.  FlexPod data center solutions redefine the way IT department delivers value by simplifying operations and delivering superior performance. NetApp, Cisco and their strong eco-system of innovative partners with more than 8,000 FlexPod customers today – and hundreds of references in all industry sectors across the globe. 

 

Accelerating performance with All Flash FAS

 

NetApp All-Flash FAS (AFF) systems will also be showcased at GITEX. AFF addresses enterprise storage requirements with high performance, superior flexibility, and best-in-class data management. Built on the ONTAP data management software, all-flash FAS has been updated by NetApp to further speed up business performance without compromising on the efficiency, reliability, or flexibility of its IT operations. AFF is best suited for performance-demanding applications such as database, VDI, and server virtualization, but also a great choice for shared environments with a variety of workloads commonly found in a data center. 

 

Additionally, AFF comes with a full suite of acclaimed NetApp integrated data protection software. NetApp is number two in the Worldwide All Flash Array Market recently announced by IDC in its Worldwide Quarterly Enterprise Storage Systems Tracker for CY 2Q2016.[3]

 

Third Party Partners Onsite

 

New generations of data analytics technologies such as Splunk solutions are becoming key tools for the data-powered digital enterprise while many leading oil and gas companies globally rely on Schlumberger’s applications to make high-impact decisions that drive their own success.

 

Gitex visitors can also connect with subject matter experts from Splunk and Schlumberger at the NetApp stand to gain valuable insights on how to have greater data visibility and performance from their applications to make the best decisions in a fast-changing business landscape.

 

GITEX Onsite Activities

 

To take attendee engagement to the next level, visitors at the NetApp stand can also experience an interactive virtual reality experience. Using the Google Tilt VR brush, visitors are able to build the data centre of the future. Following this experience, NetApp stand visitors will have the opportunity to win their own Google VR 3D Carbon Glasses for creative designs.