Question : Problem: Netapp Versus Falconstor replication

We are presenting a Falconstor solution NSS with CDP across 2 x IBM DS4700 Dual controller SANs and we are competing against 2 x Netapp 2020 with Replication, Snapshot, Dedupe. This is a VMware HA and DR solution.

I would like to get some honest feedback on the solutions side by side and opinions on which would be favoured (benefits, advantages, performance). I have heard that the Netapp 2020 is a single controller SAN and the overhead to run the replication, snapshotting etc would give the Falconstor solution a 20% performance advantage.

Look forward to your feedback

Answer : Problem: Netapp Versus Falconstor replication

I have some experience with NetApp 2020s, just setup a few of them with out VMWare install last week.  For VMWare NetApp recommends using NFS for VMWare since it's the device's native file system.  iSCSI performance is ok, slower than some but not too bad for SMBs.  The one thing that makes the NetApp stand apart is the SnapManager for VI, SnapManger for Exchange and SQL.  Since it will allow you to restore individual VMs, datastores, etc.. it provides something that many SANs do not.

Another reason many of our customers are going to NetApp is because it acts as a file server (Filer) and offloads the files with dedupe capability.