NetApp introduces new AFF A-Series systems to boost AI use

NetApp, the intelligent data infrastructure company, has announced the introduction of their new AFF A-Series system and has deepened their 5-year partnership with Lenovo. These developments come in response to the need for optimized solutions in managing modern workloads such as GenAI - generative Artificial Intelligence applications.

The AFF A-Series systems are designed to empower customers to effectively manage rigorous IT workloads, including GenAI, VMware, and enterprise databases. In the era of Artificial Intelligence (AI), enterprise and businesses are under pressure to quicken innovation, improve customer experience, enhance productivity, and outrival cyber threats. Many organisations view AI as a critical tool in achieving these goals. The AFF A-Series System is designed to provide a unified data storage infrastructure to help them take advantage of the vast opportunities AI has to offer.

According to the 2024 NetApp Cloud Complexity report, achieving success in businesses with AI hinges on access to data and IT infrastructure. These newest offerings from NetApp aim to unravel those complexities, offering innovative and intelligent data infrastructure that empowers customers to draw out and utilise the value of their data with AI.

As part of the expanded partnership with Lenovo, NetApp is also introducing a new converged infrastructure solution, NetApp AIPod, which offers Lenovo's leading server reliability, quality, and performance. Sandeep Singh, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Enterprise Storage at NetApp, said, "The NetApp AIPod with Lenovo ThinkSystem servers for NVIDIA OVX transforms enterprise AI by delivering a pre-integrated, high-performance solution that accelerates the deployment and scaling of generative AI workloads."

NetApp is leveraging Lenovo's high-performance ThinkSystem SR675 V3 servers, the NVIDIA-certified OVX architecture, alongside NVIDIA L40S GPUs and Spectrum-X Networking. This integrated solution simplifies AI adoption and enables businesses to fully unlock AI's potential. Kamran Amini, Vice President and General Manager of Server, Storage & Software Defined Solutions, at Lenovo Infrastructure Solutions Group, noted that businesses deploying AI "demand business critical availability, ease of management, and infrastructure efficiency."

The new AFF A-Series systems include the AFF A1K, AFF A90, and AFF A70, which are designed for versatility and scalability across multiple data types, applications, and cloud-based settings. They include advanced features such as up to double performance levels, proven 99.9999% data availability, leading raw-to-effective capacity, and integrated real-time ransomware detection, affirming NetApp's commitment to robust, intelligent, and secure enterprise storage.

The NetApp AFF A-Series systems and the NetApp AIPod with Lenovo for NVIDIA OVX will be available to customers later in 2024.