With the introduction of 2 new air-cooled single-frame mainframes on April 14th – smaller configurations than the machines launched in September 2019, it’s a good time to have another look at the DS8900F and TS7770 storage systems which are built to complement the capabilities of the new IBM mainframes.
IBM has 2 mainline storage portfolios. It recently simplified the messaging for its general-purpose, non-mainframe offerings, while keeping a highly-integrated set of products for its mainframes, described here.
DS8900F Storage arrays
The DS8900F family currently has 3 models (see my Figure above). These all use IBM’s own Power9 processor, have varyingly large amounts of cache, flash drives and resulting data capacities for production data. A relatively new development is the availability of the 993 model, which can be fitted to an existing rack by users in addition to the 994 and 996 that are housed in 1 or 2 IBM chasses respectively.
IBM has been releasing its mainframes from private data centers to make them work in cloud environments. They can be used for developing and deploying modern ‘cloud native’ applications and microservices through software such as Red Hat OpenShift and IBM Cloud Paks. Users can build Kubernetes-based code, run and manage it in the cloud without having to jettison any of the high security features they’ve enjoyed in their own data centers.
The DS8900 not only support RedHat OpenShift and IBM Cloud Paks, but also can seamlessly move data, with full encryption, from on-premises to hybrid cloud configurations.
High data security is provided on all of these arrays through always-on AES 256-bit GCM data encryption, which applies to data at rest, in flight and when moved to the cloud. Protocols include IBM Object Storage, Amazon S3 and (naturally) the TS7770 tape drives connected through Fibre Channel in the data center and Ethernet beyond.
Cyber resiliency has improved with this latest generation of arrays, not just in giving seven nines (99.99999%) availability when used with HyperSwap, but also in being able to participate in 3- or 4-site data center replication, helping to achieve a 2-4 second RPO and <60 seconds RTO at distances of more than 1,000 miles using Global Mirror. Data recovery has been improved by the introduction of Safeguard Copy, which protects vital information from being modified or deleted, whether accidentally or maliciously.
TS7770 Virtual Tape Libraries
IBM has a greater than 50% market share of the tape drive market due mainly to the fact that it has continuously improved a product that many other systems suppliers simply gave up on. The TS7770 Virtual Tape Library also comes in three versions, the smallest of which is a single cluster that can be fitted into an existing customer rack; the other two are single or 2-8 multi-cluster products housed in IBM manufactured chasses. While the operational resiliency of these machines is slightly less than the new arrays (five as opposed to seven nines) they have distinct advantages in offering a physically ‘air gapped’ data backup to TS4500 physical tape libraries that can’t be accessed remotely over the Web by cyber criminals. Generically tapes (unlike disk drives) also have the cost advantage of using no electricity when at rest.
The TS7770 has made tape more ‘cloud native’ as it can act as an object store not only for the DS8900F and IBM’s Cloud Object Store, but also for AWS S3 and Rstor public cloud use. Additionally, the TS7770 can seamlessly move data, with full encryption, from on-premises to hybrid cloud configurations.
The TS7770 also benefits from encryption increasing the security of its customers’ data. Very large companies can use up to 8 TS7770s in a grid structure of geographically dispersed systems linked using zHyperLink in the data center, FICON channels for branches and Ethernet beyond.
Cyber resiliency is provided through logical Write Once Read Many (WORM) times. If enabled security notifications of potential cyber attacks can be supplied through IBM zSecure, QRadar or Spectrum Protect software offerings.
IBM is no longer the leading server or storage system hardware supplier worldwide (as always I’m showing my own findings in the Figure above – IBM has a larger share of the market if I was also able to included software). Its decision to withdraw from the x86 server market has allowed it to focus and specialise on high-end servers and storage, which are used extensively by the largest governments, financial institutions and other sectors… and these are very demanding customers.
Far from remaining locked in private data centers, mainframe servers and storage systems now form a sub-structure of highly-secure and easy-to-recover systems that branch out through the cloud, running modern containerised applications and micro services. With cyber crime and government legislation to address personal data privacy growing IBM is one of only a handful of suppliers who address high performance, high availability and data security at an architectural level, rather than as an after-thought. I believe it will become more popular, not least as an important tool in rescuing the economy from the deep declines created by the COVID-19 pandemic.