NetApp SolidFire

NetApp SolidFire is an all-flash, scale-out storage platform designed for enterprise and service provider environments that require predictable performance, granular automation, and multi-tenant isolation.

• All-flash, scale-out storage platform for data center and cloud infrastructure (data storage)
• Quality of Service (QoS) controls for predictable performance across mixed workloads (performance management)
• API-driven automation and integration for storage provisioning and lifecycle operations (infrastructure automation)
• Multi-tenant storage architecture with logical isolation for shared environments (cloud and service provider storage)
• Scalable node-based design for incremental capacity and performance growth (scale-out infrastructure)

More About NetApp SolidFire

NetApp SolidFire focuses on all-flash, scale-out storage (data storage) for enterprises, cloud providers, and service providers that operate multi-tenant or large virtualized environments. Its design centers on predictable performance delivery, API-driven control, and the ability to scale capacity and throughput by adding storage nodes without disrupting workloads. SolidFire is positioned for use cases such as infrastructure as a service, large-scale virtual desktop environments, container platforms, and database or analytics workloads that share a common storage substrate.

The SolidFire architecture (data storage) distributes data and performance across a cluster of nodes, rather than concentrating workloads on individual controllers. This clustered design supports linear scaling: as new nodes are added, both capacity and I/O performance increase. Data is typically spread across the cluster using distributed redundancy techniques so that a node failure does not cause loss of data availability. This approach is intended to support continuous operations in environments that host many independent tenants or applications.

A central characteristic of NetApp SolidFire is its QoS capability (performance management). Administrators can define minimum, maximum, and burst input/output operations per second (IOPS) values per volume or workload, which allocates predictable resources and reduces contention between tenants. This QoS model is used in multi-tenant clouds so that one tenant’s activity does not affect the performance of others. For enterprises, this allows consolidation of diverse workloads—such as databases, virtual machines, and test environments—onto a shared set of all-flash resources while maintaining defined performance boundaries.

SolidFire exposes its functionality through a comprehensive REST-based Application Programming Interface (API) (infrastructure automation), which aligns with Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC), orchestration, and DevOps practices. Storage provisioning, QoS policy changes, snapshot management, and capacity operations can be automated and integrated into broader cloud management platforms and service catalogs. This API-centric model is used by service providers to offer storage as a service with programmatic control, and by enterprises to reduce manual administration in software-defined data centers.

From a marketplace perspective, NetApp SolidFire is categorized in all-flash storage systems (data storage), scale-out storage platforms (infrastructure), and storage for cloud and service provider environments (cloud infrastructure). It is used where predictable performance, multi-tenant isolation, and automated lifecycle operations are core requirements. Within a directory or taxonomy, SolidFire fits under enterprise storage arrays, cloud and service provider storage, and API-driven infrastructure platforms that support virtualized, containerized, and service-based delivery models.