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Injecting renewed life into its FlexLine V-Series SVA (Shared Virtual Array) family, StorageTek on Monday unveiled the new FlexLine V2Xf which offers improved storage capacity and performance for mainframe environments.
Storage Technology Corp. introduced the FlexLine V2Xf at the SHARE Technology Exchange Expo in Boston. Designed for native FICON connectivity in z/OS and z/VM environments, the new product offers twice the physical and virtual capacity and up to 40 percent improvement in workload and response time performance over the existing V2Xtf, said officials of Louisville, Colo.-based StorageTek.
Currently shipping, the self-managing FlexLine V2X4f provides Flex Volume and Large Volume support; offers customers configurations 73GB 15,000 RPM or 146GB 15,000 RPM FC (fiber-channel) drives; and delivers up to 23TB of useable capacity. The mainframe-oriented box features over-provisioning capabilities, built-in data compression, and instant unlimited point-in-time snapshot copies ideally suited for testing/develop environments, disaster recovery and business continuity needs.
Chuck Standerfer, senior partner for Greenwood Village, Colo.-based Evaluator Inc., said StorageTeks refresh of the V-Series SVA V2X4f should diffuse any concerns that the SVA technology—introduced more than 11 years ago—is far from being put out to pasture.
“I think the biggest thing about the [V2X4f] announcement is it sends a message to the world that the SVA isnt going anywhere. [However] this product is getting a bit long in the tooth. It was first introduced in 1994, thats a long time to stretch the technology,” said Standerfer. “StorageTeks current install base, which is sizeable, is very loyal to this technology. Theyve built a lot of operational procedures around it and this [upgrade] gives them a reason for keeping this technology.”
According to StorageTek officials, customers with existing FlexLine V2Xf systems can upgrade those systems to 23TB virtual capacity from its current 11.5TB threshold and boost performance by 40 percent through new IPX5 processor cards, which are currently available.