Network Appliance partners with Fujitsu to create highly manageable, scalable and available SAP environments for mySAP customers

Network Appliance (NetApp) today announced it has signed a partnership agreement with Fujitsu Australia to provide storage, recovery and backup capabilities for Fujitsu’s FlexFrame Solution for SAP.

FlexFrame was developed as a new infrastructure architecture for mySAP environments. It provides a simple, proven and future-proof solution for SAP users that expolits the latest business-critical computing technology to deliver major cost savings. NetApp, Fujitsu Siemens Computers and SAP jointly developed FlexFrame which consolidates mySAP solutions on a single, easily-managed, integrated platform.

“NetApp is an integral part of the FlexFrame solution,” said Alistair Latham, Executive General Manager, Platforms and Systems Group, Fujitsu Australia. “The FlexFrame infrastructure is built on NetApp’s network attached storage solutions which were chosen for their ability to provide better price performance over traditional storage area network solutions and to offer the latest in data storage and security technology.”

The FlexFlame solution allows organisations to build scalable, highly available SAP environments while reducing total cost of ownership and system complexity. Independent studies have proven that FlexFrame reduces SAP infrastructure operating costs by up to 60 per cent and siginificantly accelerates ROI. It achieves this by taking advantage of the grid computing capabilities of the Linux and Solaris operating systems to run a single instance of the operating system and a virtual mySAP environment over multiple servers.

Using FlexFrame, servers can be dynamically reprovisioned to run different applications or take over from a failed system within minutes. If additional computing power is required, new servers can be plugged into the system and are ready to run within a few hours. The result is a highly adaptable infrastructure that responds to changing business process needs in real time. The initial FlexFrame solution implementation is also extremely rapid with physical installation reduced from weeks or months to a matter of days.

“We’re delighted to be working with Fujitsu and making headway into the SAP market,” said Mark Heers, marketing & alliances director for NetApp ANZ. “Customers are crying out for a complete solution with unmatched simplicity as the requirements have become more complex over time. Our research showed this solution is what customers are looking for and this has been proven by the success we have had to date, with more than 80 customers worldwide already using the product.”

FlexFrame is particularly well suited to organisations or government departments using or considering a shared services model. Departments using a shared services model can achieve economies of scale while maintaining complete separation between systems. The overall cost of such a system is reduced through the automation of tasks, reduction of complexity and a simplified management console which allows the IT administrator to quickly see a snapshot view of the resourcing and make adjustments as necessary.

The adaptive computing strategy from SAP—based on the SAP Net Weaver integration platform—contributes to the software technology. In addition, FlexFrame offers solutions for disaster recovery and centralised backup.