This document compares VMware storage solutions from NetApp and EMC. It finds that NetApp requires fewer datastores (8 vs 38) and less allocated storage capacity (41TB vs 70TB) than EMC. NetApp also requires fewer disks (140 vs 360), uses less datacenter space (30RU vs 72RU), cooling (14,140 BTUs vs 34,800 BTUs), and power (4.43kW vs 10.32kW). NetApp achieves these efficiencies through thin provisioning of VMs via NFS and an estimated 30% data deduplication savings.

1. VM WARE S TORAGE
N ETA PP VS EMC
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2. S TORAGE L AYOUT
A SSUMPTIONS
Common Assumptions
Total Virtual Machines = 500
Avg Data & OS size = 96GB per VM (Based on P2V Scenario)
Double Disk Failure Protection
FC disks only
Growth Rate = 15% & Fudge Factor = 10%
No data protection – No NetApp Snapshot or EMC BCV
30 ESX servers
EMC Assumptions
LUN should < 2TB
RAID-10 technology (20 drives per RAID group) + 40:1 hotspare ratio
FC LUNs are thick provisioned by default
NetApp Assumptions
30% Deduplication (Due to P2V process, OS and Data drives will be mixed thus reducing dedup to an estimated 30%)
100 VMs per NFS datastore
RAID-DP technology (16 drives per RAID group) + 2 hotspare for every 100 drives
NFS is thin provisioned by default
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3. VM WARE S TORAGE – EMC
Number of Datastores = 38
Allocated Space = 70TB
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4. VM WARE S TORAGE – N ETA PP
Number of Datastores = 8
Allocated Space = 41TB
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5. C OMPARISON – EMC VS
N ETA PP
EMC NetApp Advantage
Number of Datastores 38 8 79% (less is better)
Allocated Capacity 70TB 41TB 42% (less is better)
Number of Disks 360 x 450GB 140 x 450GB 63% (less is better)
(including RAID + Hot Spares)
EMC NetApp Advantage
Datacenter Space 72RU 30RU 58% (less is better)
(does not including controllers – only diskshelves)
Datacenter Cooling 34,800 BTUs 14,140 BTUs 59% (less is better)
(does not including controllers – only diskshelves)
Datacenter Power 10.32 kW 4.43 kW 57% (less is better)
(does not including controllers – only diskshelves)
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6. C OMPARISON – V ISUAL
• 42% less storage
• 58% less space
• 57% less power
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7. N ETA PP –
S TORAGE E FFICIENCY
Thin Provisioning of VMs via NFS
Provision based on space used by physical server, not by the allocated drive
space.
Deduplication Technology
We anticipate 30% deduplication per datastore based on elimination of
duplication data within OS drives.
Save
18% Save
70TB 57TB 42% 41TB
Thin Provisioning Thin Provisioning + Dedup
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