IBM announced enhancements to its XIV Storage System Gen3, including a new performance-boosting solid-state-drive (SSD) caching option, and a new app to monitor their XIV storage from their iPhone.
IBM has
announced several enhancements to its XIV Storage System Gen3, including a new
solid-state-drive (SSD) caching option that can increase system performance by
up to three times, and a new Apple iPhone app that lets users monitor their XIV
storage environment from virtually anywhere.
The IBM XIV
SSD Caching option provides up to 6TB of fast-read SSD and is the latest in a
series of advances that IBM has developed for the enterprise storage system
over the last six months.
In July, IBM
introduced the XIV Storage System Gen3, a new generation of the storage family
that dramatically lowered the total cost of ownership and improved system
performance by four times over the previous model. With XIV Gen3, IBM also
replaced the systems Ethernet-based backplane with a high-performance
InfiniBand backplane that increased the systems internal bandwidth between
modules by 40 times. Then, in October 2011, IBM added 3TB disk drives to the
system, increasing system capacity by 50 percent.
IBM officials
explained that with SSD caching, the most frequently used data is stored on
solid-state memory placed between the system memory and hard drives, IBM said.
Because SSDs use no spinning disks and robotic arms, the storing and retrieving
of data is accomplished with virtually no latency, speeding data access by
orders of magnitude. In addition to the superior performance, SSD cache
requires no separate tier to manage.
These latest
updates to XIV Gen3 are a great example of IBMs continued commitment to
helping customers achieve business outcomes through smarter storage
technologies, said Doug Balog, vice president and business line executive for
IBM Storage Systems, in a statement. It comes down to saving customers time
and money with extremely efficient, easily managed, virtualized, and
high-performing storage systems like XIV Gen3.
In addition to
IBM XIV SSD Caching, IBM announced the ability to mirror data between previous
versions of XIV and XIV Gen3 systems, which will ease data migration and help
give customers the flexibility to repurpose their XIV models as disaster
recovery backup systems, the company said.
Meanwhile,
building on XIV Gen3s remote monitoring capabilities, IBM also announced the
XIV Mobile Dashboard for the Apple iPhone, which enables users to monitor XIV
systems from virtually anywhere. The app will be available for download at no
cost later this month from the Apple Online Store. In October 2011, IBM
released the XIV Mobile Dashboard for the Apple iPad.
IBM also
announced an update to its Linear Tape File System (LTFS) Library Edition. LTFS
Library Edition Version 1.2.5 supports Mac OS X and lets users of the operating
system create, manage and optimize video workflows using LTO-5 based tape
libraries.
In addition to
increasing the performance of its storage systems, IBM is making them more
affordable, as well, company officials said. Credit-qualified clients can
acquire IBM's new Storage Systems with monthly payments with financing from IBM
Global Financing, the lending and leasing arm of IBM. Low-rate leasing programs
allow clients to preserve up-front cost and plan for mid-lease upgrades as
requirements change.
For more
information, click here.
Darryl K. Taft covers the development tools and developer-related issues beat from his office in Baltimore. He has more than 10 years of experience in the business and is always looking for the next scoop. Taft is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and was named 'one of the most active middleware reporters in the world' by The Middleware Co. He also has his own card in the 'Who's Who in Enterprise Java' deck.
Email
Print
