Hello
We have a Netapp 450 (the 486 EISA-based machine). NetApp will soon discontinue support for the machine and I'm curious as to what others think of this.
We bought our 450 in Nov. 1995 before the PCI-based filers appeared. We are a fairly small shop, (nothing like some of the huge servers discussed on this list :-), but we are delighted with our filer which has never crashed or given us any problems.
I understand NetApp reasoning for desupporting the 450 - it costs money to test each new version of the OS on the EISA boxes for what I assume is a small number of remaining users.
What do other successful vendors do with older hardware? Does the newest Solaris run on older Sparcs? What about CISCO? I have some seven year old Telebit netblazer routers and they still run the newest OS. NetApp compares its filers to routers, why can't they do what Telebit has been able to do?
Our 450 is 27 months old....its performance is terrific for our purposes and I'd have a hard time forming a technical and business case to replace the system with a new model.
I guess I just don't think 27 months is VERY OLD!
What do you think? I'm not bashing NetApp, they're a great company, I'm just disappointed.
Regards
Mark Richards Hicks Morley Hamilton Stewart Storie