IBM Storwize V7000 Storage Controller Released for Lenovo

IBM Lenovo Storwize V7000 is a virtualized, software-defined storage system designed to consolidate workloads into a single storage system for simplicity of management, reduced cost, scalable capacity, and performance and availability.

Lenovo Storwize V7000 2.5-inch Storage Controller Unit Model 524 features:

• Two node canisters, each with an eight-core processor and 32GB cache for a system total of 64GB cache
• 1GbE ports standard for 1GBbE iSCSI connectivity
• Up to two I/O adapter features for 8Gb FC, 16Gb FC and 10GbE iSCSI/FCoE connectivity
• Support for up to twenty-four 2.5-inch drives
• 2U, 19-inch rack mount enclosure

Model 524 comes standard with integrated, hardware-assisted compression acceleration. Real-time compression workloads can further benefit from the optional cache upgrade to increase the total system cache to 128GB and the optional compression accelerator card feature for additional hardware-assisted compression acceleration.

Storwize V7000 offers both LFF and SFF 12Gb SAS expansion enclosure models. Storwize V7000 3.5-inch Storage Expansion Unit Model 12F supports up to twelve 3.5-inch drives, while the Storwize V7000 2.5-inch Storage Expansion Unit Model 24F supports up to twenty-four 2.5-inch drives. High-performance disk drives, high-capacity nearline disk drives, and SSD are supported. Drives of the same form factor can be intermixed within an enclosure, and LFF and SFF expansion enclosures can be intermixed within a Storwize V7000 system.

A Storwize V7000 Model 524 system scales up to 504 drives with the attachment of 20 Storwize V7000 expansion enclosures. It can be clustered to help deliver greater performance, bandwidth, and scalability. A Storwize V7000 clustered system can contain up to four Storwize V7000 systems and up to 1,056 drives.

The Storwize V7000 will be available for the new PureFlex System which is an integrated, optimized configuration delivered preconfigured and tested by Lenovo.

All Storwize V7000 functional capabilities are provided through the Storwize Family Software for Storwize V7000.

Key prerequisites
Storwize V7000 requires Storwize Family Software for Storwize V7000 version 7.4, or later, for operation. Use of the software is entitled through the acquisition of Storwize V7000 software licenses.

Planned availability date: January 13, 2015