Is NetApp’s FAS3020 faster than their old FAS940, what about the F840? Pursuant to a customer request I went to www.Spec.org to check the results of their testing to see if I could provide our customer the best unit for his budget and performance requirements.

Their testing results are very revealing, and if you look carefully at their testing
parameters, it seems that the 3020 was given a lot of advantages in the testing. The new FAS3020 compared to the FAS940, has over a 40% faster processor and twice the NVRAM, it was tested on a Jumbo Frame network and they increased the RAID set size. More drives typically represents better performance for a database. However, even with all of these advantages the 3020 was only able to handle about 3% more OPS. But it seems to have a lower overall response rate for handling the requests. When comparing the 3020 to the 840 we were even more startled, because the 3020 has 4 times the NVRAM and 4 times the processor speed but only doubles the OPS and the response was only about 20% better.

From our review of the results of NetApp’s Spec.org tests we recommended that our customer purchase the F840 or FAS940 with transferable licenses from Zerowait, because they can save a lot of money without sacrificing performance. Our customers are concerned by the cost of storage at acquisition and also the long term maintenance costs of their equipment. At Zerowait we strive to provide our customers with outstanding storage value for their investment dollars. And carefully reviewing these tests results can save you money also.