Switch VMs from NetApp to us and we'll give you extra storage, says Tintri

Not in every case, granted - only if you find their latest ad campaign untrue

Flashy upstart Tintri says its customers can run servers with more VMs using its storage instead of NetApp - and it's putting its money where its mouth is.

The startup claims VMware-using customers can "cut their storage capacity and rackspace requirements by 50per cent or more" by moving from NetApp FAS storage arrays to its own hybrid flash+disk arrays.

Specifically, Tintri says its "Virtualize More with 50% Less" program features:

• Storage capacity: Move existing VMs from NetApp FAS to Tintri’s VMstore and cut storage capacity and physical foot print needed by 50 per cent guaranteed
• Deployment times: Eliminate long storage cycles for both new and existing virtualization projects and reduce deployment time over NetApp by 50 percent
• Operational expense: Slash operational expenses and overhead by 50 percent. The Taneja Group recently validated the reduction of operational overhead in moving from traditional architecture such as NetApp FAS to Tintri VMstore at 60x

You can find out more about the program here (pdf). There are various deployment requirements, some listed below:

• A minimum of 150 VMs is the required number to participate in the program
• For comparison purposes, workloads that use linked clone technology from VMware might be excluded
• A cumulative minimum of 15,000 IOPS (from all the VM workloads running on the storage system) is required. The IOPS should be measured with ≤8KB block size using 50/50 Read/Write mixed workload
• In large environments, Tintri reserves the right, as part of this program, to require customers to have multiple Tintri VMstore systems in order to achieve the performance goals
• A cumulative minimum of 48TB raw NetApp capacity is mandatory for the program
• Thin provisioning must be used. Configurations involving thick disks are excluded from consideration
• Use of cloning from templates or snapshots to create and provision VMs is mandatory. At least five active virtual machines must be created from one template or snapshot
• Tintri NAS VAAI plug-in must be used when creating VMs from vSphere Web Client. Snapshot schedules and policies
• The amount of storage space used by snapshots should be no more than 10 per cent capacity of a VMstore system. If multiple VMstore systems are deployed, snapshots should consume no more than 10 per cent on each system
• Customers must deploy a 10GbE network for connecting Tintri VMstore to their virtual infrastructure for running data traffic (1GbE network connectivity is not acceptable)

There are others, including Tintri Best Practices requirements. They're all specified in the PDF.

If customers find that Tintri's claims are untrue then Tintri will "provide the necessary professional services and, if needed, provide additional storage to meet the workload requirement limited to the extent defined in the Program."

So, NetApp-using masses, consider the mighty Tintri VMStore and tremble in awe. ®