IBM Enhanced Storage Portfolio

IBM Corp. announced enhancements across its systems portfolio that are designed to help organizations adopt cloud computing as they build toward Software Defined Environments (SDE).

Enhancements to IBM’s Smarter Storage line of flash, disk and tape systems give clients faster access to business critical information and big data insights. New HPC solutions bring capabilities to mainstream servers to help more clients crunch their mounting volumes of data faster.

New capabilities added to the IBM PureSystems family expert integrated systems are designed to help clients reduce the security risks often faced when deploying cloud solutions, as well as enable quick recovery and restoration after disasters. A new mobile solution based on IBM Worklight server on PureSystems for both Power and x86 was created to accelerate clients’ access to millions of mobile users by allowing mobile applications to be deployed in as little as 30 minutes.

"Cloud computing and big data analytics are playing key roles in helping organizations lower operating expenses, improve efficiencies, and increase productivity," said Tom Rosamilia, SVP, IBM Systems and Technology Group. "But they’re also enabling greater and faster access to business insights, which is fundamentally transforming the ways in which organizations, public and private, are interacting with, learning from, and supporting their customers."

Smarter Storage for New Era of Computing
In addition to rolling out its new IBM FlashSystem family of all-flash appliances, the company announced enhancements to its storage portfolio that will help more clients achieve faster and continuous access to business-critical information. For example, IBM added support for 4TB drives to its Storwize V7000 and XIV storage systems for 33% more capacity in the same space, and new capabilities to XIV that let clients send large volumes of data between systems through the cloud without performance degradation.

IBM also enhanced its Easy Tier technology, which automatically moves data to the most effective storage tier in a storage system for faster performance and greater efficiency. The new Easy Tier Server function helps boost performance further by caching the hottest, most-frequently accessed data to the EXP30 Ultra SSD I/O Drawer on Power Systems. When these servers are used in conjunction with the IBM DS8870 storage system, the new Easy Tier Server capabilities can help boost storage performance by up to five times.

Other updates to the storage line include: IBM LTFS Enterprise Edition is based on LTFS Library Edition, but lets clients use tape storage as a separate tier for greater management and access. The system is a cost-effective and easy-to-deploy data solution that’s for Web 2.0 applications. It is integrated with the IBM GPFS file system and can help lower storage and archive costs up to 90%.

IBM FlashSystem series are released. Announced in April, the series of all-flash appliances has been enhanced to deliver less than 1/10 the cost per transaction while using 4% of the energy and 2% of the space compared to hybrid disk and flash systems.

TSM Dashboard visualizes thousands of data points
TSM Operations Center provides a new management dashboard that lets clients manage more backups with less complexity. The health of data protection environments can be assessed at a glance, combining thousands of data points into an intuitive dashboard screen. Based on a combination of analytics, workflow automation and advanced visualization, the new software also offers improved scalability with consolidated backup and recovery capabilities that manage thousands of backups at multiple sites. It also has the ability to monitor systems with any browser-enabled device. In addition, to help find and resolve backup issues faster, a centralized view of backup problems can be seen across multiple TSM servers. Essential problem information is also highlighted, eliminating diagnostic steps. By showing alerts in context, users can better understand the impact on service levels and data loss to take appropriate action.

Power Systems for Industry IBM rolled out nine new Power Systems offerings, each providing advanced capabilities in big data analytics and cloud computing .

Five packaged solutions for the healthcare and retail industries represent the latest in a series of new industry-themed solutions that combine Power Systems with specialized software to meet big data and analytics needs unique to specific industries. For healthcare, the new solutions are designed to improve patient care and experience, reduce healthcare costs and maximize health resource utilization; while the retail solution is geared toward helping retailers provide customers with more personalized shopping experiences.

Three additional solutions provide organizations in any industry sector with advanced computing capabilities including predictive analytics , scoring and optimization techniques, as well as turnkey cloud offerings that support pay-per-use business models or fit-for-purpose private cloud infrastructures. Built on Power Systems’ open platform for choice , both cloud solutions manage industry-standard Linux, AIX and i OS environments.

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the i OS, IBM introduced the IBM i 25th Anniversary Edition. Available on either a Power 720 or Power 740 server, this special solution edition includes a no-charge IBM i 7.1 processor license and three service vouchers.

Technical Computing‘s New Application-Ready Solutions
New entry-level technical computing solutions announced integrate the company’s Platform Computing software directly on Power Systems, Flex Systems, System x, iDataPlex, and storage systems. These application ready solutions for technical computing address the challenges clients face with the rise of big data, computationally intensive workloads and cloud computing. The application ready solutions, designed for the automotive, aerospace, oil and gas, and life sciences industries, are expertly tuned by IBM and its partners and designed to get clients up and running fast.

The solutions come pre-integrated with Platform Computing workload management software, Flex System or System x servers, system storage and applications. As a result, entry-level and midrange clients can easily deploy and manage high-performance clusters, grids, and remote 3D visualization clouds.

PureFlex, Cloud, and Big Data
As part of today’s announcement, IBM is adding new solutions for cloud , mobile , social and analytics that will build on the global momentum of PureSystems. Since its introduction a year ago, more than 4,000 PureSystems have shipped to organizations in more than 90 countries, with adoption in key growth markets and by MSPs who are building cloud data centers with PureFlex at their core.

The new offerings include:

• PureFlex Solution for Cloud Backup and Recovery – This solution incorporates specialized patterns based on TSM, Hyper-V and the SAP Business Suite to help clients reduce the security risks they often face when deploying cloud solutions. In the event of a site disaster, data can be restored to operating status in minutes and most applications will be able to recover to operation in minutes ;
• IBM Mobile Application Platform Pattern – A mobile solution based on IBM Worklight server on PureSystems for both Power and x86 that can accelerate client access to millions of mobile users by allowing new mobile solutions to be deployed in 30-40 minutes; IBM Connections Pattern that will allow clients to deploy their social business platform on PureSystems.

System Networking
Along with the slew of system enhancement news, the company also announced the SAN96B-5 96-port, a 16Gb/s Gen 5 FC SAN switch with Fabric Vision technology. The new switch enables faster insights by doubling the data throughput as compared to previous generation SANs. With the new switch clients can maximize up-time, optimize data performance and unify SAN management through Fabric Vision diagnostic, monitoring and management technology.

Financing
IBM Global Financing offers credit-qualified clients interest-free financing when they acquire their Power and Storage systems. Also, new mobile financing app for IBM Business Partners can help facilitate closing more business with their clients.