IBM’s storage division has been busy again announcing a new storage system, a storage acquisition and management approach, and an advanced architecture. On April 25th 2024 it announced:
- FlashSystem 5300 – a 1U rack mounted storage unit with up to 1.81Pb effective capacity using 2:1 de-duplication and 3:1 compression and incorporating IBM’s new FlashCore Module 4;
- FlashSystem policy-based replication – giving users an automatic way of deploying and managing the necessary replication between two systems for disaster recovery or HA purposes;
- IBM Flash Grid technology and policy-based High Availability enhancements – allowing users to manage storage systems as a highly available and independently scalable environment and move workloads without disruption between FlashSystem devices from a single control plane, and
- IBM Storage Assurance – a life-cycle management solution giving users access to new IBM storage hardware and software innovations.
FlashSystem 5300
The new array will become available on May 17th 2024. The new machine has a number of enhancements over the FS5200 which it replaces, including:
- Processing – the use of Intel’s Broadwell DE processor gives it an improved performance, taking IOPs up 45% and bandwidth up 50%;
- Connectivity – the addition of PCIe Gen4 gives the new system 64GB Fiber Channel support and twice as many 32Gb FC ports;
- Cybersecurity – it has added the ransomware threat detection of the new FCM4 component ; increased the snapshot capacity to 10PB (2.5x more), doubling the number, or size, of the SafeGuarded copies produced and added IBM Secure Boot;
- Predictability – it has added dedicated CPU core to a number of advanced software services.
Combined these new features help to make the FS5300 faster, more connected, safer and more predictable than the earlier machine, which was already ahead of its competitors in these respects. IBM evens offers existing FlashSystem 5200 customers the ability to upgrade their controllers from FCM3 to FCM4 to provide access to these new features.
FlashCore Module (FCM) 4 adds automatic insights into ransomware attacks at the block level
FlashCore Module (FCM) 4 is the new version of IBM’s QLC-based flash drive announced at the end of February 2024, which now has the in-built ability to detect ransomware attacks in less than a minute through analyzing stored data continuously, looking for anomalies in read and write processes though its AI enhancements.
The Flash Grid architecture is enabled through enhancements to its policy-based HA and replication
FlashSystem already offers policy-based replication for simple-to-use, high performance DR solutions. It is now adding policy-based high throughput, low latency High Availability with no single point of failure. Later this year it is expected to launch policy-based HA with the ability to simplify tasks for setting up, managing and monitoring three-site replication.
By rewriting its approach to High Availability and replication from the ground up IBM claims major advantages over the currently-used Global Mirror and HyperSwap HA approaches including four time the host throughput, much higher volume replication (32.5k compared with 2.5k for Global Mirror and 2k for HyperSwap) and the ability to replicate up to 4PB per I/O group.
Effectively IBM – through adding automated HA and partitions for replicating data – is now able to create multiple software-defined virtual storage systems within a single FlashSystem deployment. The Flash Grid approach will allow users to create federated, scalable clusters of independent storage devices and failure domains. From an application angle, through the use of storage partitions, it will allow users to add HA and/or DR resilience to applications through manual or automated non-disruptive data movement. It will also enable easier device migration and consolidation and rebalancing of storage capacity and performance.
IBM Storage Assurance – now guaranteeing an up-to-date storage environment
IBM wants to supply its users with varied storage consumption models to suit what’s best for their business’ capital and operation expenditure strategy. Software Assurance is its highest-level maintenance service, joining both its Utility pay-as-you-go quarterly usage schemes and As-a-Service offerings storage infrastructure. It has now added Storage Assurance – a high-level maintenance service giving 4- or 8-year contracts for automatic hardware and software upgrades for end-user infrastructure around life-cycle Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
It is designed to help a customer avoid the high cost and complexity of maintaining a mix of new and old storage assets and migrating data between them. Other leading suppliers can make it increasingly difficult for customers to maintain and upgrade older products, perhaps in the hope of higher returns from fork-lift replacements to their latest offerings. IBM wants its storage clients to get the most out of all of their investments, irrespective of when they acquired them. As IBM continues to innovate in both its controllers and storage devices (FlashCore Modules), it wants to make sure its customers can take full advantage of non-disruptive enhancements easily. It will provide a full system refresh if a user cannot adopt the latest storage software, support older hardware or fail to upgrade to the highest capacities because older drives are no longer available. This premium service includes a dedicated account manager and provides energy efficiency guarantees to help customers manage the increasing burden of carbon audits and sustainability legislation.
Bought in 4- or 8-year increments, paid for up front or through annual, quarterly or monthly payments, it includes Storage Insights Pro and Storage Virtualization. IBM also allows users the flexibility to trade in their older systems if, irrespective of the Storage Assurance contract, their workloads change and they want to make a whole generational replacement.
IBM’s holistic approach to storage systems
IBM now has 2 principal storage hardware ranges – the DS8800 for z System users and Flash Systems for everyone else. It has worked relentlessly to adjust the ways these work to keep them relevant as components of a modern data center infrastructure. Other storage system vendors tend to focus on one or two of the four essential layers of a) hardware, b) software, c) services and d) cybersecurity. IBM is different in continuing to address all four layers through its fundamental research – it provides a much wider, deeper and more coherent approach than its rivals. Like other vendors IBM’s current storage systems strategy is derived partially through acquisition; however, unlike its largest competitors, since 2012 it has fully integrated Texas Memory System’s technology, know-how and experience into a single IBM approach. It’s much less likely that it will ever leave its existing customers in the lurch through a sudden change in direction. What it really needs next to grow its storage systems revenues substantially is a stand-out new solution for new customers. Generative AI storage systems anyone?…..