IBM is filling a hole in its catalog of storage hardware and software for small and midsize businesses and is extending its relationship with Network Appliance to continue providing new products for the same market.
The Armonk, N.Y., company announced Nov. 16 that it is rolling out a new midrange N-series (for NetApp) storage system as well as expanded virtualization interoperability and database backup software.
To better compete with market leader EMC, IBM and NetApp, of Sunnyvale, Calif., announced in April that they would band together to create storage and information-on-demand solutions. As part of that agreement, IBM is now selling branded storage systems based on NetApps unified and open NAS (network-attached storage) and iSCSI/IP SAN (storage area network) products, including NearStore and NetApp V-Series systems.
NetApp applications are now more integrated with IBM Tivoli Storage Manager. NetApp also uses IBMs tape systems in its storage packages.
“Basically, its very simple what IBM is now offering SMBs,” John Foley, IBMs manager of the IBM-NetApp product line, told eWeek. “We have three [storage] system products, each in the small, medium and large size—meaning small, medium and large in capacity and I/O capability. However, they all have the same 41 software features across the board, plus some optional features.”
The newest SMB-oriented system, IBMs System Storage N5600 appliance, fills a hole in the midsize N-series lineup. The new device offers an easy migration path to the IBMs enterprise-class offerings and scales up to 252TB, Foley said.
IBM also announced new interoperability between N-series gateways and IBMs SVC (SAN volume controller), which ensures that users can attach N-series gateways to their SVC storage pool, enabling heterogeneous file sharing and block-level virtualization. IBMs SVC provides block-level virtualization, enabling centralized management of managed storage resources and nondisruptive migration.
Finally, IBM introduced SnapManager for Oracle, which automates the manual processes associated with the backup, restoration, recovery and cloning of Oracle databases.
All three offerings will be available Dec. 8.
Storage for SMBs
IBMs new offerings include:
* System Storage N5600 Available in two models, it offers an easy migration path to enterprise products and scales to 252TB
* New interoperability between N-series gateways and SVC To ensure heterogeneous file sharing and block-level virtualization
* SnapManager for Oracle Automates tasks related to backup, restore and recovery of Oracle databases
Source: IBM