The Hindu Business Line : IBM expands storage portfolio

"We're turbo charging our storage systems and accelerating our NetApp relationship to help customers manage their information on demand needs. The choice for customers is clear - more powerful and faster storage solutions from IBM, versus proprietary solutions from EMC," said Mr Shailesh Agarwal, Country Manager, IBM Storage.

New model

At the high-end, IBM is introducing the new IBM System Storage DS8000 Turbo models, updating its flagship DS8000 series. New features include improved tiered storage options, functions to enable greater performance and efficiency for DB2 applications on IBM System p servers, and support for three-site business continuity solutions.

IBM today is also announcing enhancements to the IBM System Storage DS6000, which now supports low cost Fibre Channel ATA drives (FATA), tiered storage options and TotalStorage Productivity Center for Replication. The new IBM System Storage DS8000 Turbo models and enhancements for the DS6000 series will both be available on September 9, 2006 with starting list prices of $213,400 for the DS8000 Turbo models and of $102,600 for the enhanced DS6000.

Additionally, the server synergy features for the DS8000 Turbo will be available on November 17, 2006 and available as an upgrade at no additional charge on systems purchased prior to November 17, 2006.

Storage products

IBM also introduced a complete line of unified storage products based on NetApp's technology, which can be used by a range of companies - from small businesses to large data centres.

The N series models, IBM System Storage N7600 and N7800, offer Fibre Channel and SATA disk drive support and provide simultaneous NAS, iSCSI and 4Gbps FC SAN (FCP) attachment. These high-end enterprise solutions are designed to enable customers to consolidate large amounts of IP attached storage under one single point of management. The N series enterprise appliance models will be available September from 1, 2006 with a starting price of $140,500, and the N series enterprise gateway solutions will be available from September 22, 2006 with a starting price of $113,500.

IBM's Compliance and Archiving Solutions were also enhanced, said the release issued by the company. Single server and express model configurations are currently available starting at a price of $21,000. Dual-server models will be available from September 15, 2006, starting at a list price of $128,000.

The company recently expanded its DS4000 line of midrange storage servers with the introduction of the IBM System Storage DS4200 Express Model, a powerful and affordable storage server that is ideal for small and medium-sized businesses. The DS4200 Express will be available on August 25, 2006, starting at a list price of $11,474.