NetApp releases next-gen EF-Series storage systems

NetApp is releasing the next generation of its EF-Series storage systems designed to help enterprises and neoclouds meet the growing demands of AI, high performance computing and transactional databases.

The new systems - EF50 and EF80 - when coupled with high-performance parallel file systems like Lustre or BeeGFS can help accelerate HPC simulations and keep GPUs fully utilised with high-performance scratch space, the company said.

The new EF-Series storage systems deliver over 110GBps of read throughput and 55GBps of write throughput, a 250 percent improvement over previous generations.

With a power efficiency of 63.7GBps per KW, and 1.5PB of storage in 2U, it's intended that organisations can achieve high performance for data-intensive workloads; balance budget requirements with high-performance needs; and simplify management and operational complexity with block storage and support from NetApp’s technical experts.

“As businesses contend with ever-increasing data volumes and performance-intensive applications such as AI model training, AI inferencing and high-performance computing, they need infrastructure that delivers speed, scalability and efficiency without added complexity," said Sandeep Singh, senior vice president and general manager of Enterprise Storage at NetApp.

"NetApp delivers a comprehensive portfolio that addresses every stage of the AI data pipeline from collecting and preparing data to feeding it to GenAI models that produce business insights. With the new EF-Series systems, purpose-built for extreme performance, we’re enabling customers to deploy and scale high-throughput, low-latency workloads quickly and efficiently, while reducing data centre footprint and operational overhead.”