topic Re: Difference between FAS2720 and FAS2750 in ONTAP Discussions

Difference between FAS2720 and FAS2750

siemensocs — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 11:20:50 GMT

Hello Community,

we already have got a upgrade offer for our FAS2040. Recommendation is FAS2720 (12 x 2 TB SAS). But I noticed there is also perhaps newer model (FAS2750) with similar configuration. I just wish to know if its a better replacement than FAS2720?

If yes then is it as well cost effective for 12x2 TB solution?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Regards,

Admin

Re: Difference between FAS2720 and FAS2750

SpindleNinja — Thu, 30 Jan 2020 12:27:57 GMT

If you go to HWU.netapp.com you can see a detailed side by side.

They're technically the same controller, but the 2750 can't support NL-SAS / SATA drives without an external DS212c shelf.

If your workload is just needing the 12x NL-SAS drives, just go with the 2720.

Re: Difference between FAS2720 and FAS2750

siemensocs — Thu, 30 Jan 2020 12:37:02 GMT

Aah Thanks for the reply. That helps. We already have got an offer for 2720. So was wondering if 2750 would be cost effective or not.

Re: Difference between FAS2720 and FAS2750

Ontapforrum — Thu, 30 Jan 2020 13:29:57 GMT

Hi,

Just to add to it further - Are you sure you want to go with 12 NL-SAS* ? It's a one time decision, you don't want to invest again to buy another shelf to make up for the performance issues later on.

*NL-SAS are SATA Drives with SAS connector, with 7.2k RPM for 2TB capacity.

With FAS2750 you get SFF:Small_Form_Factor drives so you can stock 24 of them in the same 2U Interal Shelf and with mix of SAS & SSD you can really make a good choice.

However, if you do decide to go with FAS2720, then have 8xNl_SAS and 4xSSDs, to compensate for 7.2K RPM drives.

Anyway, it also depends on your budget and expectations but take a sensible decision.

Thanks!

Re: Difference between FAS2720 and FAS2750

SpindleNinja — Thu, 30 Jan 2020 14:41:41 GMT

Ask them for a quote.

or like Ontapforrum said, get the 2720 with some SSD.

Re: Difference between FAS2720 and FAS2750

paul_stejskal — Fri, 31 Jan 2020 15:45:39 GMT

Another option: AFF A190. SSDs are nice, especially if you don't want to have many drive bays/shelves, so you don't have to hit disk bottleneck issues.

Re: Difference between FAS2720 and FAS2750

siemensocs — Thu, 06 Feb 2020 10:41:13 GMT

Thank you for your reply.

We already have 2 offers from Netapp. 1. FAS2720 HA System mit 12x 2TB (7.2K) and 2. AFF A200 HA mit 24x 960GB SSDs . But to be honest , the costs for both the product are very high. AFF being almost 4x (Option 1) With Netapp we are really very happy but now looking at these prices , we are perhaps forced to think other options. HPE MSA2052 looks promising and cost effective. But need to dig in more.

Your thoughts? Are there any other better replacement options?

Thanks in advance.

Regards.

Re: Difference between FAS2720 and FAS2750

SpindleNinja — Thu, 06 Feb 2020 14:00:52 GMT

Ask them to quote you a AFF C190; though note that there's some limits to it, but it costs less than a A220.

As far as the MSE... you get what you pay for. When I was an admin, i found them very hard to manage (we got a site during an acquisition). Also, depending on what your 7mode system, say... I lot of file shares. migrating to a MSA might be a huge undertaking. Look at all parts of your environment before deciding on an array, that's always my approach when working with my customers.

Re: Difference between FAS2720 and FAS2750

Ontapforrum — Fri, 07 Feb 2020 15:00:49 GMT

Agree with SpindleNinja. We recently bought AFF-C190 (dirt cheap) with 16 Cores/64GB RAM (excluding 8GB NVRAM), performance wise as good as any expansive All Flash Arrays but at a very reasonable price. You get ALL FLASH with good RAM good cores, and the capacity is something you can choose from the express pack. Take your time.

Re: Difference between FAS2720 and FAS2750

siemensocs — Wed, 12 Feb 2020 09:56:30 GMT

Thanks for the responses. AFF-C190 looks good when I compare it with C220 but will it give me price advantage over Netapp FAS 2720? That is what we are actually interested in. Like said we already have offers for 2720 n C190. And C190 is almost 4 times more than 2720. But we are looking for price range lower than 2720. Huh !!

Re: Difference between FAS2720 and FAS2750

Ontapforrum — Wed, 12 Feb 2020 10:28:05 GMT

I understand your dilemma and it's not easy to be in your shoes, it's easy to recommend things and most difficult to digest and go for it.

All that aside, I believe the the most important factor will be : Budget vs Performance expectations with future growth in perspective.

For example: If my budget is tight and my future growth is well defined for next 2 years (not unpredictive) then I would rather have FAS2750 or FAS2720 with some SSDs and be done with it. Just for analogy : If FAS2720 is sustaining 5ms latency and AFF-C190 gives me 100 micro seconds latency, that will make absolutely no apparent difference to the end-user application experience. However, if the competition for resources increases (considering the load n-blade & d-blade) then this 5ms could go up to 15ms or even worst depending upon how QoS is applies in your environment.

Thanks!

Re: Difference between FAS2720 and FAS2750

GidonMarcus — Wed, 12 Feb 2020 13:40:04 GMT

Just adding you two another directions. Since you mentioned HPE MSA2052 which is all-SAN, maybe you can use the NetApp All-SAN E-series. I think they can give a better competitive price for that system than the FAS/AFF.

They also have a Hyper-Converged product that they're trying to push very hard, maybe they can give you a competitive pricing over there, and save you the need of doing server renewals.... (if you still have support for your servers, you can technically start with a storage-only configuration if i remember correctly)

Anyway I encourage you to show them the other quotes you get and ask them to either show you their advantage for your business, or match the price.