"NetApp's recent SPC-1 benchmark results confirm our earlier published findings on achieving excellent competitive performance with real-world configurations using valued features such as Snapshots", stated Pat Cimprich, Avanade's chief architect for Infrastructure and Security Solutions. "Practical performance results like these help Avanade design and implement well-managed storage solutions for enterprise applications, including Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server and SQL Server, which supports dynamic computing capabilities that help companies streamline and promote faster business change."

In addition to high performance, the SPC-1 Results also provides evidence that NetApp FAS3040 customers can realistically expect 68% better capacity utilization than EMC CX3-40 users as a result of RAID-DP, NetApp's Double-Parity RAID 6. This set of SPC-1 Results represent NetApp innovation and leadership in a number of key areas:

• The first-ever results utilizing Double-Parity RAID 6
• The first-ever results utilizing Snapshot copies
• The highest percentage usable capacity ever benchmarked for a modular SAN storage system

The NetApp FAS3040 has a lower list price than the EMC CLARiiON CX3-40. The lower price and superior capacity utilization provide a far lower cost per benchmarked gigabyte, a key indicator for effective real-world data centre capacity planning.

"We saw a dramatic increase in performance after switching from EMC CLARiiON to NetApp storage systems", stated David Duchai, senior vice president of Information Technology Services, First American Bank. "Uptime and usable storage capacity also increased substantially. Our system has become so easy to manage that we need only one administrator. NetApp is head and shoulders above EMC."

"The simplicity of the NetApp storage solution represents significant management savings", stated George White, chief information officer, Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General. "Then factor in performance, and NetApp is appreciably more cost-effective than our old DAS solution and the alternative SAN solution we evaluated."

"This set of SPC-1 Results is clear proof that NetApp SAN storage solutions provide our customers with outstanding performance when compared to the competition", stated Rich Clifton, senior vice president and general manager, Virtualization and Grid Infrastructures, NetApp. "The customer relevance of these results set a new standard, as we made sure to simulate a real-life data storage environment by implementing NetApp Snapshot and RAID 6 as part of the testing methodology. As the results show, the NetApp FAS3040 passed with high marks while maintaining the high-performance standards our customers have come to expect."

"The Storage Performance Council is pleased that NetApp has published its first SPC-1 Results, joining a group of distinguished members", stated Walter E. Baker, administrator for the SPC. "We also applaud the introduction of snapshots, in the context of an SPC-1 Result, as more and more companies today are leveraging this technology to provide continuous protection and smart copies of their data.. The inclusion of this feature during the benchmark measurements renders the results even more relevant to real-world applications."