Data Management Glossary
NetApp FabricPool
What is NetApp FabricPool? Is it the Right Choice for NetApp Data Tiering?
FabricPool (now called NetApp Cloud Tiering) is a NetApp storage technology that enables automated data tiering at the block level from flash storage to low-cost object storage tiers, in the cloud or on premises. FabricPool is a form of storage pools which are collections of storage volumes that often blend different tiers of storage into a logical pool or shared storage environment.
Originally developed to tier “snapshot” or backup data, the functionality has been extended to infrequently accessed blocks of the active file system. Tiered data is stored in a proprietary format in object storage and as a result can only be read via the original NetApp array. File data access from the object storage is not possible, eliminating the use of cloud-based tools for AI/ML. Additionally functions such as backup by external application or migration to new storage array require full rehydration of data, leading to egress fees from cloud storage and the need to retain sufficient storage capacity on-premises.
Read the white paper, Cloud Tiering: Storage-Based vs Gateways vs File-Based, for more discussion on storage pools.
Array block-level tiering is a mismatch for the cloud. NetApp cloud tiering blocks rather than entire files has the following ramifications:
- Limited policies result in more data access from the cloud.
- Defragmentation of blocks leads to higher cloud costs.
- Sequential reads lead to higher cloud costs and lower performance.
- Tiering blocks impacts performance of the storage array.
Read the blog post: What you need to know before jumping into the cloud tiering pool
Learn more about FabricPool technology.
When it comes to considering NetApp data tiering and NetApp cloud tiering, it’s important to understand your cloud tiering choices. Cloud tiering and archiving can save you millions by offloading infrequently accessed cold data to cost-efficient cloud data storage. But, the approach you take can either create an easy path to the cloud for file data with full use of data in the cloud or it can create costly cloud egress and lock-in. Also, what about cloud data migration and cloud tiering for other storage systems (i.e. Isilon cloud tiering) if you are a multi-storage enterprise IT organization? And what about tiering data from older versions of NetApp? This is why increasingly the market is moving to storage-agnostic unstructured data management.
Learn about Komprise’s native integration with NetApp and why Komprise is the right choice for NetApp cloud data tiering.