New Storage, Management Features for IBM PureSystems Help Clients Reduce Costs, Increase Utilization
New Flex System technologies evolve beyond blade computing.
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To help clients increase their IT utilization and reduce data center operation costs, IBM has introduced new mobile, management, and storage components for its PureFlex and Flex System portfolios. Key among these components is a new storage system to help improve storage utilization as much as 30 percent while delivering extraordinary ease of use.
This storage system is tightly integrated with IBM Flex System Manager and uses IBM Storwize family virtualization and unique IBM Real-time Compression technologies to help clients reduce storage requirements by up to 80 percent. As a result, clients can run their most important workloads with no application performance degradation.
IBM also unveiled new capabilities for PureFlex and Flex Systems that will provide the management and administration tools clients need to effectively increase their data center utilization. These include: integrated end-to-end storage management; mobile access to the system for clients through a wide range of mobile devices (Android, Blackberry, and iOS); and centralized control of user IDs and passwords across nodes and chassis for greater system security. These features will build upon the capabilities of Flex System Manager to help organizations more efficiently create and manage their IT infrastructures.
Recent research from IDC illustrates that one of the main challenges IT organizations face today is about the deployment, management, and administration of servers that are consuming a larger portion of the overall IT budget and consequently leaving fewer resources to spend on new projects. Sixteen years ago, the bulk of IT budgets was spent on hardware, with less than 30 percent spent on management and administration. By 2013, that relationship will have completely flipped, and management now will drive nearly 70 percent of all expenditures.
New Flex System Components
The IBM Flex System goes beyond competitor’s blade configurations and provides the elements for IBM PureFlex. IBM Flex Systems are built-to-order offerings for enterprises that want to custom build and tune configurations to their specific requirements. This allows them to select the specific compute, systems networking and optional storage and management required to support their specific workloads.
As part of today’s announcement, IBM is unveiling new and enhanced elements for all four aspects of the Flex System including:
Management: A new version of IBM Flex System Manager that will allow clients to bring new components online faster, provide better monitoring and alerts and to more easily integrate applications, services, and workloads through a new, easier user interface and mobile access.
Storage: Integrated Flex System V7000 storage node with built-in virtualization, intelligent tiering, and IBM Real-time Compression that enables storing up to five times as much data in the same physical disk space.
Processors: New POWER7+, x440, and x220 compute nodes provide a wide range of advanced processing technology to deliver workload optimization and choice for client data centers. Also, all POWER compute nodes are now available as build-to-order components in Flex System.
Networking: New converged fabric switches providing Fibre Channel over Ethernet and new adaptors will allow clients to choose from a wide variety of advanced networking technologies that integrate into existing network topologies and provide optimized bandwidth for their workloads.
For more information on IBM PureSystems visit: www.ibm.com/press/pure.