NetApp FAS6200 and FAS3200 Series Support: Move to Flash Leads to Product Phase-Outs

As the flash storage market expands, it’s leading to changes in NetApp FAS product lines, which in turn affect best practices for NetApp FAS6200 series and FAS3200 series support. Unfortunately for fans of these products, Computer weekly reports that “NetApp recently moved to phase out some of its fabric-attached storage (FAS) filer lines and replace them with products that can be hybrid flash or all-flash.”

The new FAS8000 series includes the FAS8020, which “maps to the FAS3220 in terms of capacity” while “the mid-range FAS8040 maps to the existing FAS3250.” At the top end, the FAS8060 offers “a 30% increase in memory over the FAS6220 it will replace.”

As tantalizing as such hybrid and all-flash storage systems can be, they are not necessary for all applications. Members of the NetApp FAS6200 and FAS3200 series of products, although not flash enabled, have a place in many data centers, remote offices, labs, and disaster recovery environments.

But that’s not the line you’re going to get from NetApp.

New Models Impact Support Life

As we’ve seen repeatedly over the years, a shift in manufacturer priority and direction trickles down to support. Customers with older gear begin to see fewer updates. Then trouble calls are greeted with soft sales tactics that say, in effect, “it would all go away with new equipment.” And finally end of support life comes around, and the OEM backs away altogether.

We finally have solid information on an EOSL date for the NetApp FAS3240. No word yet on the FAS3250 or FAS6220. No matter. We know enough to realize that soon, NetApp support for these storage arrays will not be worth the premium price. It’s time for a new approach.

Where FAS6200 and FAS3200 Still Get Priority

Although we believe that third party maintenance has compelling advantages from hardware purchase date on, we understand that customers find the value proposition more enticing as hardware ages. At some point, it becomes clear that, in order to get full attention for their legacy equipment, customers have to look beyond the OEM.

Doing so immediately has a number of advantages. Third party maintenance providers like Park Place Technologies are committed to delivering top-performing support for NetApp FAS filers, regardless of purchase date or OEM support status. In a support package, you will see:

• Park Place is competitively priced. Clients switching from NetApp will typically slash 40% to 70% off annual contract costs.
• Comprehensive coverage. We offer a variety of service levels to meet clients’ unique needs. Each package comes with the full complement of services, including remote monitoring, 100% component coverage, certified spare parts, and more.
• Greater personalization. What truly sets Park Place apart is our personalized service delivery. Every account is assigned a Level 3 engineer, who performs an up-front systems analysis to understand—and recommend improvements to—the client environment, checks in quarterly, and provides help even for issues that don’t fall into usual troubleshooting and break/fix categories. What’s more, there is NEVER an escalation procedure to reach Level 3 support when you need it.