News

IBM Announces Hybrid Cloud All-Flash Storage Solutions

• By David Ramel
• 11/04/2016

In a bid to further the development of new-age cognitive applications, IBM announced new hybrid cloud all-flash storage solutions.

The new IBM Spectrum Storage Suite offerings tie into several modern technology areas, including hybrid cloud, flash storage and software-defined storage.

"Companies are adding cloud to lower costs, flash to increase performance, and software-defined storage to add flexibility," the company said in a news release this week. "IBM is integrating these capabilities together with security and data management for faster return on investment. IBM uniquely offers the choice of on-premises storage, a software-defined solution or as a cloud service.

"IBM Spectrum Storage Suite addresses the often rigid economics of data management through the opportunity to test new hybrid cloud and cognitive applications at no additional charge and by reducing software costs up to 40 percent when compared with a non-integrated solution."

The new solutions -- to be available early next month -- are based on IBM Spectrum Virtualize software, which the company said "enables software-defined storage in your physical infrastructure to improve data value, security and simplicity."

IBM outlined several new capabilities with its new initiative:

• The company enhanced IBM Spectrum Virtualize to apply block-storage hybrid cloud advantages to its IBM Storwize family, IBM FlashSystem V9000, IBM SAN Volume Controller (SVC) and VersaStack solutions, along with almost 400 other IBM and third-party storage systems.
• The IBM Spectrum Scale solution gets new synchronization capabilities to facilitate data sharing in the cloud by syncing on-premises and cloud file and object data.
• IBM Storwize solutions get a new high-density expansion enclosure, along with new 7TB and 15TB all-flash drives.
• High-performance all-flash technology backs the company's new DeepFlash Elastic Storage Server, said to offer up to eight times better performance than disk-based storage for demanding Big Data and analytics workloads.
• New high-performance flash capability also comes to the IBM DS8880 storage system, enabling faster decision making on large data sets that the company said is ideal for "mission-critical applications such as credit card and banking transactions, as well as airline reservations running on IBM z Systems and IBM Power Systems."

"Data feeds the engine for cognitive applications that deliver client value and competitive advantage. Helping clients evolve from having data obligations to using its data to better serve its business is at the heart of today's wide-reaching announcement," said exec Ed Walsh. "Hybrid Cloud enablement, as a standard feature for new and existing users of Spectrum Virtualize, gives our clients more control to store their data where it can have the most impact to their businesses."