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NEW YORK—IBM on Wednesday announced the availability of its new IBM BladeCenter 4G SAN offering, which enables server blades to better scale connectivity and support extremely high-bandwidth data requirements for data warehouses and database serving.
Unveiled at the Storage Decisions conference here, the newest member of IBMs family of embedded SAN (storage area network) switches is made up of a QLogic Fibre Channel HBA (host bus adapter), the QLogic 4G bits switch module and McDatas 4G bits switch module.
The technology is configured to work in conjunction with IBM TotalStorage DS4800, said officials of IBM, based in Armonk, N.Y.
QLogics and McDatas switch modules can be ordered in 10 and 20 port models with upgrades made possible through software keys.
IBM BladeCenter 4G can help customers construct a tiered storage architecture more easily through simplified installation and configuration of a SAN infrastructure from a single console via QLogics SANSurfer Management Suite which is part of the QLogic switch module.
Treading a similar path, McDatas switch module provides an embedded Web GUI to maintain and manage McData SAN deployments.
The beefed-up offering includes non-disruptive code load and activation utilizing McData HotCAT technology. Additionally, optional McData security software is supported for the product.
The new 4G bits BladeCenter also features configuration zoning capabilities and comes equipped with extended distance wizards to remove complexity from installing switches and fabric scaling.
Both are currently available. Prices for McData 4G bits switches for IBM BladeCenter start at $10,999 while prices for QLogic 4G bits switches begin at $8,999.