IBM Launches 30 New Data Storage Products

IBM rolled out an assortment of 30 new storage-related products and services Sept. 8 and said that it took an investment of $2 billion, three years, and 2,500 engineers and other specialists from nine countries to complete the mission.

IBM made what it called its "largest information infrastructure launch ever" at its Storage Symposium conference in Montpellier, France.

IBM said that all the new products and services fall under the auspices of its New Enterprise Data Center strategy, which utilizes intellectual property IBM has acquired in the last two years from companies such as Diligent Technologies (de-duplication), XIV (storage grid infrastructure), Arsenal (online backup) and Cognos (business intelligence).

Key new products IBM is introducing include:

--An upgraded high-end disk storage array, the DS8000, designed for enterprises dealing with large database growth in their mainframes. The new array will also have RAID 6 protection while delivering 50 percent more storage capacity in the same footprint with new, higher capacity, performance-optimized drives, IBM claimed.

Resource Library:

--Upgraded onsite and remote data protection offerings through its acquisition of Arsenal.

--A high-density tape storage library frame, the TS3500, that can hold up to "three times more cartridges in a 10-square-foot footprint, providing nearly twice the storage density of Sun's StorageTek's frame," IBM claimed.

--ProtecTier data de-duplication software and hardware from the Diligent acquisition in April, designed to reduce redundant data by a factor of up to 25:1 in second-tier storage.

--An enterprise disk storage package, the DR550, with enhanced drives -- thanks to major advancements in single- and multi-level storage capacity from all major HHD manufacturers during the last two years -- that enable an average of 33 percent more capacity per disk.

In a direct shot at its major enterprise competitor, IBM said "unlike the EMC Centera, the DR550 allows partitioning to run third-party ISV applications and is able to use both disk and tape."

--A 1TB-per-cartridge storage tape drive -- which IBM unabashedly calls "the world's fastest" -- which competes directly with Sun StorageTek.  Storing up to one terabyte of uncompressed data per tape cartridge, storage backups can be completed up to 54 percent faster than the previous IBM generation drive.

"The need for this new data center model is compelling," Mesabi Group storage analyst David Hill said. "IBM stated that data created and copied is expected to grow at 57 percent CAGR through 2010, and pressures on the IT resources of global enterprises is expected to grow rapidly as businesses and consumers in emerging markets come online.

"IBM views as serious the challenges that organizations face in having to store information for compliance reasons and wanting to store it to obtain business value, but failing to store information adequately for budgetary reasons."

IBM System Storage General Manager Andy Monshaw said that conventional IT and data storage infrastructure is not designed to efficiently manage the estimated 2 billion people who will be using the Web by 2011. Monshaw also said that an expected 1 trillion connected objects – cars, appliances, cameras, roadways, pipelines – will comprise the new "Internet of things" by that year.

The proliferation of the mobile Web, connected sensors everywhere, from cars to pipelines, online medical records, and the explosive growth of Web 2.0 data and social networking, are leading to 16-fold growth in each individual's "information footprint" by 2020, according to IBM.  

"The world is re-tooling its underlying IT infrastructure in a dramatic shift away from a decades-old client/server model to a radically more efficient Internet-style architecture," Monshaw said in a prepared statement.

"This requires different thinking and new capabilities, which we are addressing in this information infrastructure launch, with our investments going forward, and how IBM will do business with our clients."

Monshaw then named competitor names.

"IBM is the only company in the world -- not HP, not EMC, not Sun -- with decades of research, industry knowledge, market leadership and the end-to-end capabilities to make this a reality for our clients," Monshaw said.  

For a full listing of the products and services announced Sept. 8, go here.