A storage administrator wants to expand an existing NetApp ONTAP AFF cluster with cost-effective nearline...

= Adding a new FAS system to the existing AFF cluster is a way to expand the storage capacity with cost-effective nearline storage for archiving purposes. A FAS system can use HDDs as the performance tier and tier cold data to cloud object storage using FabricPool, which is a NetApp data tiering technology that reduces the amount of physical capacity taken up by data. This way, the administrator can leverage the storage efficiencies of ONTAP and the low-cost storage of the cloud to archive data that is not frequently accessed. The AFF and FAS systems can be managed by the same ONTAP cluster and provide seamless data access and protection. References = Storage Efficiencies - NetApp, Data Archiving: Cost-Effective Cloud Storage - NetApp, AFF Systems and Cloud Volumes ONTAP | NetApp.