Sponsored by: NetApp
In this episode we talk with Adam Carter (@yoadamcarter), Chief Architect, NetApp Solidfire & HCI (Hyper Converged Infrastructure) solutions. Howard talked with Adam at TFD16 and I have known Adam since before the acquisition. Adam did a tour de force session on HCI architectures at TFD16 and we would encourage you to view the video’s of his session.
This is the third time NetApp has been on our show (see our podcast with Lee Caswell and Dave Wright and our podcast with Andy Banta) but this is the first sponsored podcast from NetApp. Adam has been Chief Architect for Solidfire for as long as I have known him.
NetApp has FAS/AFF series storage, E-Series storage and SolidFire storage. Their HCI solution is based on their SolidFire storage system.
NetApp SolidFire HCI Appliance
NetApp’s HCI solution is built around a 2U 4-server configuration where 3 of the nodes are actual denser, new SolidFire storage nodes and the 4th node is a VMware ESXi host. That is they have a real, fully functional SolidFile AFA SAN storage system built directly into their HCI solution.
There’s probably a case to be made that this isn’t technically a HCI system from an industry perspective and looks more like a well architected, CI (converged infrastructure) solution. However, they do support VMs running on their system, its all packaged together as one complete system, and they offer end-to-end (one throat to choke) support, over the complete system.
In addition, they spent a lot of effort improving SolidFire’s, already great VMware software integration to offer a full management stack that fully supports both the vSphere environment and the embedded SolidFire AFA SAN storage system.
Using a full SolidFire storage system in their solution, NetApp gave up on the low-end (<$30K-$50K) portion of the HCI market. But to supply the high IO performance, multi-tenancy, and QoS services of current SolidFire storage systems, they felt they had to embed a full SAN storage system.
With other HCI solutions, the storage activity must contend with other VMs and kernel processing on the server. And in these solutions, the storage system doesn’t control CPU/core/thread allocation and as such, can’t guarantee IO service levels that SolidFire is known for.
Also, by configuring their system with a real AFA SAN system, new additional ESXi servers can be added to the complex without needing to purchase additional storage software licenses. Further, customers can add bare metal servers to this environment and there’s still plenty of IO performance to go around. On the other hand, if a customer truly needs more storage performance/capacity, they can always add an additional, standalone SolidFire storage node to the cluster.
The podcast runs ~23 minutes. Adam was very easy to talk with and had deep technical knowledge of their new solution, industry HCI solutions and SolidFire storage. It’s was a great pleasure for Howard and I to talk with him again. Listen to the podcast to learn more.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:02 — 52.7MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Email | RSS

Adam Carter, Chief Architect, NetApp SolidFire
Adam Carter is the Chief Product Architect for SolidFire and HCI at NetApp. Adam is an expert in next generation data center infrastructure and storage virtualization.
Adam has led product management at LeftHand Networks, HP, VMware, SolidFire, and NetApp bringing revolutionary products to market. Adam pioneered the industry’s first Virtual Storage Appliance (VSA) product at LeftHand Networks and helped establish VMware’s VSA certification category.
Adam brings deep product knowledge and broad experience in the software defined data center ecosystem.