As a solutions architect for Sirius, my work could easily be described as a continual process of learning new technologies and uncovering ways to manipulate them so they provide all the intended benefits to my clients. So you might find it funny that I consider myself averse to change. I would be upset if went to my restaurant, and ordered my entrée only to learn that the amazing steak I’ve always loved was no longer an option, but had been replaced with a vegetable medley. I would not, however, be upset if that amazing steak now also included a free drink, dessert, valet parking and much more!
For two decades NetApp has offered its Data ONTAP OS in what we now call 7-mode. In 2007, with the purchase of Spinnaker and its integration into Data ONTAP, there became two flavors of ONTAP: 7-mode and cDOT or Clustered Data ONTAP. With the release of Data ONTAP 8.3, 7-mode has been retired, and cDOT is now the only mode available.
Here are my thoughts for those Data ONTAP clients who are reluctant to cross the chasm. With this change you have to move data off the OS, wipe the drives, and move data back after the OS is upgraded. And for a large enterprise, that’s no easy feat, and a lot can go wrong. But when it’s completed you will witness major performance improvements, adaptive compression, QoS, non-disruptive operations, the same NAS and SAN features you love, plus MetroCluster with no single points of failure.
NetApp has the market cornered as the storage solutions “friendly uncle” with its history of not forcing clients to upgrade while others will charge you extra for support or just refuse to support you. With NetApp, if you want to continue running Data ONTAP version 7.3 today you will continue to get support. I’d like to make the point here that 7.30 is now seven years old! To continue, by making the move to Data ONTAP 8.3, you are going to get your favorite dish, but now with much more.
We at Sirius have been helping clients transition to Clustered Data ONTAP for a few years now. We have the expertise and know the exact combination of transition tools from NetApp and third parties to make the change as seamless as possible for you. We’ve already identified and corrected trouble spots; we’ve done it for SAN and NAS workloads, and we are now focused on doing these same transitions for 7-mode MetroClusters to new MetroCluster Clusters (MCC). All of our NetApp-centric technologists have done a transition before and know the steps that it takes for small and large environments. So while you really liked 7-mode and you could just stay there, why miss out on the exciting things that are happening with the latest versions of NetApp’s Data ONTAP 8.3? Don’t wait, Sirius Computer Solutions will get you transitioned!
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Contact us to arrange a discussion with one of our storage experts. Learn more about ONTAP 8.3 by viewing this informative video.
