NetApp AFF (All Flash FAS) is a family of all-flash storage systems designed for enterprise workloads. The AFF A-Series targets high-performance, mission-critical applications such as databases, AI/ML, and virtualization. The AFF C-Series is optimized for capacity-dense, general-purpose workloads including backup, archive, and DevTest environments. Both series run on ONTAP, NetApp's unified storage operating system, and support block, file, and object protocols in a single platform.

AFF A-Series is built for maximum performance, delivering up to 40 million IOPs and up to 1TB/s throughput for latency-sensitive workloads. AFF C-Series prioritizes capacity density and cost efficiency, offering up to 1.5PB raw in 2U and effective capacity scaling beyond 700PB. If your priority is speed for mission-critical apps, A-Series is the fit. If you need to consolidate large volumes of general-purpose data at lower cost per TB, C-Series is built for that.

NetApp AFF supports a broad range of enterprise workloads across both series, including Oracle and SQL Server databases, SAP HANA, VMware and VDI environments, AI and ML training pipelines, Kubernetes and containerized applications, file and object storage, DevTest environments, backup, and disaster recovery. Because both series run ONTAP and support multiple protocols (NVMe/FC, FC, iSCSI, NFS, SMB/CIFS, and S3), you can consolidate mixed workloads onto a single platform.

AFF systems use AI and ML-powered real-time ransomware detection built into ONTAP, designed for 99% or higher accuracy without adding overhead to production workloads. NetApp's Ransomware Recovery Guarantee provides a formal commitment to data recoverability if an attack occurs. ONTAP's immutable snapshot technology creates recovery points that attackers can'tdelete or encrypt. AFF A-Series is also the only enterprise storage validated for top-secret data, giving it one of the strongest security postures available in the market.

Yes. Both AFF A-Series and AFF C-Series integrate natively with hybrid cloud through ONTAP and NetApp Console (formerly BlueXP). You can tier cold data automatically to AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud to reduce on-premises footprint and costs. NetApp has first-party cloud storage services on all three major hyperscalers, so your data management policies follow your data wherever it lives. Unified ONTAP management means the same workflows, security policies, and recovery procedures apply on-premises and in the cloud.

Yes. NetApp Trident integrates directly with Kubernetes to automatically provision AFF storage with enterprise-grade data protection. Trident supports dynamic volume provisioning, snapshots, and cloning for stateful applications running in containers. This makes AFF a strong choice for organizations building cloud-native applications alongside traditional enterprise workloads on a shared infrastructure.

The AFF A1K, A90, and A70 all support up to 330PB of effective capacity at 24-node scale-out. The AFF C80 reaches up to 707PB of effective capacity, making it the highest-capacity option in the AFF portfolio and well-suited for organizations with large-scale data retention or archive requirements. All models support non-disruptive scaling, so you can grow without downtime or data migration.

Yes. NetApp Keystone is a storage-as-a-service offering that lets you consume AFF capacity on a subscription basis. You scale up or down as your needs change without managing procurement cycles or capital expenditure. Keystone covers block, file, and object workloads and supports both on-premises AFF systems and hybrid cloud configurations through a single subscription and management interface.

The NetApp AFF A90 is certified for NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD, making it a validated component of enterprise AI Centers of Excellence. ONTAP's high-throughput data pipeline capabilities are designed to keep GPU clusters fed with training data efficiently. NetApp is actively investing in AI data infrastructure and provides solution briefs and design guides for deploying AFF in AI environments.

NetApp backs AFF C-Series and A-Series with a Storage Efficiency Guarantee: 4:1 efficiency for SAN workloads and 1.5:1 for NAS workloads. Always-on data reduction technologies, including deduplication, compression, and compaction, run without manual configuration or performance impact. These guarantees apply to real production workloads, not just ideal lab conditions.