IBM Continues To Drive Storage Efficiency

IBM Storwize V7000 Unified: The Storwize V7000 is IBM's flagship midmarket storage array. In keeping with a popular trend in storage, file-based NAS storage has now been added to block-based SAN storage to create what is commonly called unified storage. Unified storage has achieved a great deal of popularity because of the increased flexibility and versatility that it enables (naturally both block and file operations without having to have two different arrays and that improves on provisioning and overall capacity utilization). Now, IBM already offers unified storage as a reseller of its long-time partner NetApp. That arrangement should not change as the Storwize V7000 is aimed a little higher in the storage food chain. IBM is also quick to point out that administration for unified storage is accomplished through a single user interface and common GUI, in contrast to one of its competitors. One further benefit is that Storwize V7000 storage pools can be shared between block and file workloads.

IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage (SONAS) R1.3: The primary focus of attention here is on the new IBM Active Cloud Engine (which is available both for SONAS and Storwize V7000 Unified). Active Cloud Engine is the name that IBM gives to a policy-driven file management system whose focus is on enabling efficient file management both locally (which means at a single site)and globally (across multiple sites). Now, file management on the surface does not sound that exciting--after all, aren't files already managed?. Well, it is the breadth (geography) and depth (across all media, including tape, at a local site) that make the difference. User groups used to be isolated, but now sharing and collaboration is mandatory, and old, limited approaches to file management are no longer satisfactory. For example, X-rays may be owned by one hospital, but shared on a collaborative basis with others within a health care system or community. Although the cloud has many aspects, the Active Cloud Engine is an example of one capability that will likely become essential within the "cloud."

IBM DS8000 Rel. 6.2: The DS8000 is IBM's enterprise-class storage product. This release emphasizes IBM's view that the DS8000 can efficiently manage more storage for a larger number of applications with less effort and less cost. As the flagship product, the DS000 typically gets the most powerful enhancements first. That is realized in Easy Tier now being able to support three tiers of storage. Easy Tier was originally a way to introduce the SSD tier of storage with the enterprise HDD disk drives. A second release introduced migration (or tiering) across any two tiers, with an emphasis on enterprise-class drives and nearline drives. Now it has added support for tiering across all three drive tiers with the new 3-Tbyte drives on the newer DS8800 model. In effect, IBM can balance the continuum between demands for application performance at the Tier 0 SSD layer through the Tier 1 enterprise-class storage and through to Tier 2 nearline storage where lower cost (which is what high capacity storage is all about) is the main objective. The tradeoff is to make sure that necessary performance requirements are met at the lowest possible cost and that other storage requirements are met at the lowest cost while still meeting quality-of-service goals. Note that the DS8000 works in both the open systems and System z (mainframe) arenas, so that System z users are also able to take advantage of Easy Tier.

What’s more interesting, however, is the new capability for Easy Tier to automatically rebalance performance within single-tier pools, in addition to across multitier pools, which typically comes to mind when one thinks of automated tiering. This capability recognizes when a single (homogeneous) tier of storage is skewed and automatically migrates data within that tier to eliminate theskew. In effect, Easy Tier on the DS8000 now supports optimized performance rebalancing across tiers, as well as within a single tier.

If looked at in isolation, you would wonder how each of IBM’s storage announcements fit individually. But when viewed within the context of storage efficiency and within the broader framework of Smarter Computing, the parts work smoothly like pieces of an ever-evolving and ongoing jigsaw puzzle in which more pieces will be revealed in the future.

The IBM Storwize V7000 Unified illustrates the storage efficiency principle of getting more of what’s already on the floor, as having a unified system improves provisioning and capacity utilization. The Active Cloud Engine available for both Storwize V7000 and SONAS, as well as the new three-tier and intra-tier version of Easy Tier available on the DS8000, illustrate the storage efficiency principle of moving data to the right places.

IBM’s Active Cloud Engine does so by managing the sharing and collaboration of data while maintaining owner’s rights, among other things. Easy Tier does so to meet quality-of-service requirements at the best cost possible. All in all, these individual products perform individual functions, but they also work toward IBM’s larger goal of improving storage efficiency.

IBM is a client of David Hill and the Mesabi Group.