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IBM has continued to drive its storage division with the aim of supporting the needs of enterprise customers including the largest, most regulated and security conscious users in the world. Today’s announcement, which I was able to run through as usual with Eric Herzog and his team, shows an increasing emphasis on making what it does and sells simpler. Its advanced software (especially its Spectrum Virtualize storage hypervisor) continues to help those trying to adopt hybrid multi-cloud storage, while using a common 2U chassis has enabled it to reduce its non-mainframe storage systems families to just one.
FlashSystem is IBM’s single range of non-mainframe storage arrays
In its FlashSystem range IBM has announced a new entry-level family including 3 initial products, a new mid-range and high-end array, as well as 2 new versions of its SVC controller. In particular:
- The FlashSystem 5000 is a new family replacing the Storwize 5000. At the low end of this, it has launched the 5010 and 5030 products, which have similar 2U rack-mountable packaging with other FlashSystem products. Both are available in all flash and Hybrid (H) configurations, which add hard disk drives to solid state disks and have a maximum cache size of 64GB. The variation between the two is in a smaller 16GB cache module (only available on the 5010) and in internal encryption and 2-way clustering capability (both only available on the 5030). The also vary in the maximum number of drives that can be accommodated, which is 392 on the smaller and 504 on the larger array.
- The FlashSystem 5100 has more features than the 5010 and 5030, with cache sizes of up to 576GB and enough space for a maximum of 760 drives. Unlike the smaller products it also has the option of connecting to NVMe over Fibre SANs. It can also be clustered in a 2-way configuration and uses IBM’s Flash Core Modules.
- The FlashSystem 7200 offers even more maximum cache (up to 1,536GB), but the same number of maximum drives (760) as the 5100. It can be configured in a 4-way cluster with a maximum of 3,040 drives.
- The FlashSystem 9200 has the same number of maximum cache, drives and clustering options as the 7200. It differs in being able to be housed as the 9200R as a cluster or 2-4 systems in a single purpose-built cabinet with the largest running at a staggering 18M IOPS.
- Two new SVC controller modules (also housed in a 2U rack-mountable chassis) – the model SV2 with more IOPS (up to 16.8M) and the SA2, with a 25% lower price point.
As with the Storwize arrays, the FlashSystem 5010, FlashSystem 5030, FlashSystem 5100 and the FlashSystem 7200 will only be sold through indirect distribution channels. Always up-to-date for options, all of IBM’s NVMe-based arrays from the (Storwize or FlashSystem) 5100 upwards have a latency of only 70μs and now have the option of including Intel or Samsung Storage Class Memory (SCM) modules. As we reported last quarter, IBM’s storage systems can be bought, leased, or paid for as a utility or subscription.
Hybrid multi-cloud usage (the mixing of on-premise and cloud resources) now includes the ability to use the cloud as a disaster recovery site, as a temporary site for DevOps analytics, as an air-gapped data copy for cyber resiliency, or as place to migrate applications to. It has also added 3-site replication configurations for super data-protective customers. Recovery options following a cyber breach or incident now include recovery from snapshots, from backup by virtual machine or container, from ‘immutable’ air-gapped storage or tape.
Spectrum Virtualize provides the glue for IBM’s radical simplification
Today IBM is also extending the scope of its Spectrum storage software. In particular:
- Spectrum Protect Plus, which is used by over 400 cloud service providers as well as many enterprise customers, has been integrated with (IBM acquired) Red Hat’s OpenShift and Kubernetes container offerings, enhancing data backup, restore and reuse.
- Storage Insights, the AI-based monitoring, predictive analysis and proactive support program for all of its arrays, now supports Storage Class Memory (SCM) drives from Intel and Samsung; although currently very expensive, SCM drives close the speed gap between flash and DRAM and will improve application performance in a way similar to the initial introduction of SSDs in 2014.
- Spectrum Virtualize has been extended its work with IBM and AWS clouds, allowing customers to have hybrid multi-cloud deployments. The software also now works within Red Hat’s OpenShift and Kubernetes container environments and its Ansible automated management system.
Spectrum Virtualize has now been tested and certified for use with over 500 (IBM and other vendors’) arrays. It forms the foundation of IBM’s ‘software defined’ approach, allowing it to make advances in the cloud and in simplifying its own storage portfolio.
Radical simplification
While acquisitions, different design teams and target customers and requirements explain why storage system vendors have a number of different ranges (see my Figure above), using common chassis and components reduce the complexity of building, selling and supporting them.
IBM’s decision to replace its Storwize line with an extension downwards of its FlashSystem family reduces the complexity its storage division has to deal with and makes it easier for its customers and prospects to understand and deploy. Its key asset is its storage software, which doesn’t just provide advanced, up-to-the-minute functions for all sizes of enterprise customers, but also allows its arrays to be managed alongside those of virtually every one of its competitors and to be deployed in hybrid multi-cloud environments. It will be interesting to see how this latest announcement helps it to gain market share in 2020 and beyond.