IBM Storage

The functionality of Spectrum Accelerate is based on the IBM XIV, a high-end disk storage system. IBM Spectrum Accelerate and XIV run the same base software stack and interoperate with features such as management, remote replication and volume mobility. [2][3]

IBM Spectrum Scale is software-defined storage for cloud and analytics.

The product is very widely used in both commercial and academic environments. It has a history going back to the mid 1990s. It was formerly known as GPFS before IBM re-branded all storage products in 2015.

IBM Spectrum Virtualize is a block storage virtualization system. Because the IBM Storwize V7000 uses SVC code, it can also be used to perform storage virtualization in exactly the same way as SVC. Since mid-2012 it offers real time compression with no performance impact, saving up to 80% of disk utilization. SVC can be configured on a Stretched Cluster Mode, with automatic failover between two datacenters and can have SSD that can be used by EasyTier software to perform sub-LUN automatic tiering.

IBM Spectrum Control provides infrastructure management for virtualized, cloud and software-defined storage.[4][5]

IBM Spectrum Protect is a progression of the Tivoli Storage Management product.

It allows users to run any application designed for disk files against tape data without concern for the fact that the data is physically stored on tape.[6]

IBM offers four options:

• IBM LTFS Single Drive Edition - access and manage data on a standalone tape drive as if the data were on disk
• IBM LTFS Library Edition - access and manage data on single or multiple cartridges in a tape library
• IBM LTFS Storage Manager - manage both online and offline files in IBM tape libraries
• IBM LTFS Enterprise Edition - run applications designed for disk files from tape storage.

IBM FlashSystem offers a range of dedicated, non-SSD "all-flash" storage systems and provide flash capacity for a number of integrated systems. In April 2013, IBM announced a plan for a $1 billion investment in flash storage research and development.[7] IBM acquired flash storage system maker Texas Memory Systems in 2012.[8]

The product line-up was renewed in January 2014 with the announcement of the FlashSystem 840[9] and in February 2014 with the announcement of the FlashSystem V840.[10] Both products were improved in May 2014 with new entry level capacity points and more protocols.[11] IBM has been refreshing those systems and adding new capabilities every year. IBM FlashSystem products are covered under warranty against flash wear.

In 2017 FlashSystem brand replaces XIV brand, and in 2020 FlashSystem replaces Storwize brand.

IBM DeepFlash 150 is an ultra-high density SSD drawer holding up to 0.5 PB of Flash capacity in 3U rack space. It is directly attached via SAS to a maximum of 8 servers used as application cluster or as integrated device running some SDS storage management software. Its design point is lowest price per reliable capacity. In contrast, for lowest price per IOPS or best latency per invest, consider storage built around FlashSystem modules.

an integrated device combining one or two DeepFlash 150 drawers with IBM Spectrum Scale software for Exascale storage repositories with analytics capabilities (Hadoop, CCTV, analytics archive, media server etc.). The DeepFlash-ESS can be clustered non-disruptively with existing IBM Elastic Storage Servers, up to a theoretical limit of 8000 clustered devices. It features file (NFS, SMB), object (Swift, S3) and Hadoop transparent access. Spectrum Scale offers automated data placement and lifecycle management from Memory to Flash to Disk to Tape, besides geographically distributed caching and replication.

IBM Data Engine for NoSQL is an integrated black-box device combining an IBM PowerLinux server with FlashSystem modules attached as non-volatile memory extension (not as storage).The integrated system offers large capacity NoSQL services based on pre-loaded Redis, Cassandra and Neo4J, up to 57 TB in-memory instances. Compared to a clustered in-memory implementation, the Data Engine for NoSQL consumes a fraction of the power and rack footprint while delivering similar performance by keeping relevant (hashing) data structures in fast memory. Use cases include scalable web shops, gaming, genomics, geolocation, catalogs, hash tables and cluster caches like memcached.

High IOPS PCIe Adapters – PCIe card adapters for former IBM System x servers, offering capacities up to 2.4 TB. Moved to Lenovo.

The IBM System Storage DS8000 offers specialized advanced functions optimized for IBM Power Systems and IBM System z servers. The DS8000 also can use self-encrypting drives for every drive tier to help secure data at rest.[12]

• DS8100[13]
  • Dual 2-core POWER5+-based controllers
  • Can contain up to 384 drives (Fibre Channel or SATA)
• DS8300[14]
  • Dual 4-core POWER5+-based controllers (based on p570 servers)
  • Can contain up to 1024 drives (Fibre Channel or SATA)
• DS8700[15]
  • Dual 2- or 4-core POWER6-based controllers
  • 3.5" Fibre Channel drives or solid state disk
  • Can contain up to 1024 drives (3.5” 15K RPM HDD or enterprise flash drives)
• DS8800[16]
  • Dual 2- or 4-core POWER6+-based controllers
  • Can contain up to 1536 drives (2.5": 10K or 15K RPM HDD or SSD enterprise flash SAS-2 drives, or 3.5": Nearline-SAS drives)
• DS8870[17]
  • Dual 2-, 4-, 8- or 16-core POWER7-based controllers (Since December 2013 based on POWER7+)
    • Running SMT-4 for 64 threads
  • 1 TiB Cache
  • Can contain up to 1536 drives (2.5": 10K or 15K RPM HDD or enterprise flash SAS-2, or 3.5": Nearline-SAS drives) + 120 1.8" flash cards in the High-Performance Flash Enclosure (HPFE)
  • High Performance Flash Enclosure: integrates and optimizes flash technology in the DS8870 (High-performance flash enclosure fits into existing DS8870 bay)
    • Up to 8 Flash Enclosures per System : 96 TB raw per system
• DS8880 Family[18]
  • DS8884
    • Dual 6-core POWER8-based controllers
      • Running SMT-4 for 24 threads
    • Up to 256 GiB Cache
    • Can contain up to 783 HDD or SSD drives + 120 1.8" flash cards in the High-Performance Flash Enclosure (HPFE)
      • 2.5" 10K or 15K RPM drives and enterprise flash SAS-2 drives
      • 3.5" Nearline-SAS drives
    • High Performance Flash Enclosure: integrates and optimizes flash technology in the DS8880
      • Up to 4 Flash Enclosures per System : 48 TB raw per system
      • High-performance flash enclosure fits into existing DS8870 bay
  • DS8886
    • Dual 24-core POWER8-based controllers
      • Running SMT-4 for 96 threads
    • Up to 2 TiB Cache
    • Can contain up to 1,536 HDD or SSD drives + 240 1.8" flash cards in the High-Performance Flash Enclosure (HPFE)
      • 2.5" 10K or 15K RPM drives and enterprise flash SAS-2 drives
      • 3.5" Nearline-SAS drives
    • High Performance Flash Enclosure: integrates and optimizes flash technology in the DS8880
      • Up to 8 Flash Enclosures per System : 96 TB raw per system
  • DS8888
    • Dual 48-core POWER8-based controllers
      • Running SMT-4 for 192 threads
    • Up to 2 TiB Cache
    • High Performance Flash Enclosure: integrates and optimizes flash technology in the DS8880
      • Can contain up to 480 1.8" flash cards in the High-Performance Flash Enclosure (HPFE)
      • Up to 16 Flash Enclosures per System : 192 TB raw per system

The IBM XIV Storage System was designed to work well in cloud and virtualized environments. The XIV Gen3 model offers 2, 3, 4 or 6 TB drives, providing up to 485 TB of usable capacity per rack. SSD caching (available as an option) adds up to 12 TB of management-free high-performance data caching capability to the entire array. The system can also connect to external storage via Fibre Channel (8Gbit/s) and iSCSi (1 or 10 Gbit/s).[19] The XIV line was replaced by IBM FlashSystem line.[20]

IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage (SONAS) is the IBM enterprise storage platform based on GPFS technology. This system implements NAS based protocols over a large-scale global name space. Today the system can scale out using commodity components to 30 balanced nodes and up to 14.4 PB of storage. GPFS gives the SONAS system with built-in ILM and tight integration with Tivoli Storage Manager helps move data to disk pools.[21]

The Storwize family of storage controllers shares the software with the IBM SAN Volume Controller and offers the same functionality with few exceptions. Storwize systems are capable of external virtualization, ideally used for technology migration and investment protection for aging systems. Storwize advanced caching, free-of-charge Easy Tier (automatic data placement) and automatic hotspot elimination help infuse a second life to previous-generation storage systems. Modern virtualization functions like inline real-time compression for data on external systems can help delay capacity repurchase for several years.

IBM Storwize V7000 series - announced in 2010, is a compact (2U rack-mount enclosure) virtualizing storage system that inherits IBM SAN Volume Controller (SVC) functionality.

Storwize V7000 Gen1 - can attach to storage clients via FCP (8 and 16 Gbit/s), FCoE or iSCSI (1 or 10 Gbit/s) protocols and can use Real-time Compression to reduce disk space usage by up to 80 percent.

Storwize V7000 Gen2 and Gen2 turbo, each a technology upgrade with increased throughput and number of drives support: 720 slots per single controller or 3040 per clustered controller.

Storwize V7000F - designed for SSD-only operations.

Storwize V7000 Unified combines two head units running IBM Storwize File Module Software with the IBM Storwize V7000 block storage system. It is described as unified storage because it simultaneously implements NAS protocols (such as SMB and NFS) and block storage.[22] It leverages IBM Spectrum Scale software capabilities.

Storwize V7000 Gen3 - last upgrade of V7000 line, before merging to FlashSystem in 2020.

IBM Storwize V5000 series - announced in 2013, is a mid-range virtualizing storage system offering many of the features of the V7000 in a 2U rack-mount enclosure.

Storwize V5000 - supports 6 Gbit SAS and 1 Gbit iSCSI host attachment and either 8 Gbit FC or 10 Gbit iSCSI/FCoE host attachment. The system can support up to 480 drives with nineteen expansion enclosures, and up to 960 drives in a two-way cluster configuration.[23]

Storwize V5000 Gen2, a technology upgrade with increased number of drives support. It is available as V5010, V5020, and V5030 with mutual in-place upgrade capability.

Storwize V5000F - designed for SSD-only operations.

Storwize V5000 Gen3 - last upgrade of v5000 line, before merging to FlashSystem in 2020.

IBM Storwize V3700 - announced on Nov 6, 2012, is an entry-level 2U system designed to meet the block storage needs of small and midsize businesses. This system offers capabilities previously available in more expensive systems to help businesses consolidate and share data at a lower price.[24] Key hardware features include:

• Dual controllers with up to 480 TB of capacity and 8 GB of cache
• Up to 240 2.5" disk drives or 120 3.5" disk drives with 9 expansion units
• Host attachment through 1 Gbit iSCSI ports and 6 Gbit SAS ports (standard), with optional 1 Gbit iSCSI, 6 Gbit SAS, 10 Gbit/s iSCSI/FCoE, or 8 Gbit Fibre Channel expansion cards.
• 8GB Cache (4GB per controller) standard; optional upgrade to 16GB
• RAID levels 0, 1, 5, 6, and 10
• Redundant, hot-swappable components (i.e., power supplies and fans)
• AC power (110 to 240 V); In October 2013, IBM announced DC powered models, NEBS and ETSI compliance[25] and remote mirror over IP networks, integrating Bridgeworks SANrockIT technology to optimize the use of network bandwidth.[26]

Storwize V3700 also offers management and interoperability features from previous Storwize systems, include simple management capabilities, virtualization of internal storage and thin provisioning for improved storage utilization and one-way data migration to easily move data onto Storwize V3700.

As of November 2016, available Storwize media sizes include 2.5" flash SSDs with up to 15.36 TB capacity and 3.5" Nearline-HDDs with up to 10 TB capacity, available for Storwize 5000, 7000 and SAN Volume Controller native attach. IBM Storwize Easy Tier will automatically manage and continually optimize data placement in mixed pools of nearline disks / standard disks / read-intensive Flash and enterprise-grade Flash SSDs, including from virtualized devices.

Transparent Cloud Tiering for Swift- and S3-compatible object datastores can be used as a cold tier for incremental volume snapshots and volume archives without live production access. This allows keeping hourly time machine copies or archiving VM images including attached volumes at a price point somewhat closer to tape media. Supported on-premise datastores include IBM Cloud Object Store (aka Cleversafe) and IBM Spectrum Scale object. Off-premise datastores would be popular S3-compatible cloud services like IBM Bluemix (aka Cleversafe cloud). Off-premise Transparent Cloud Tiering per default uses AES encryption, which is a licensed feature.

IBM Storwize High-Density Expansion 5U92 for Storwize V5000 Gen2, V7000 and SAN Volume Controller, attaching via 12Gb SAS lanes. This high density carrier hosts 92 hot-swappable large form factor drives in 5U rack height. Use cases include general footprint reduction, active archives, streaming media applications, or big data warehouses.

Peak performance figures are equivalent to four chained 2U Storwize EXP 12Gb SAS expansions, at equal total number (and type) of drives.

High density tape library supporting Linear Tape-Open (LTO) 5 and 6 or TS1140 and TS1150 drives. Can scale up to 35.5 PB of native capacity with 3592 cartridges and up to 11.7 PB with LTO 6 cartridges. Supports up to 5.5 PB in 10 sq ft.[27]

Highly scalable tape library supporting Linear Tape-Open (LTO) or TS11x0 drives. Can scale up to 16 frames, 192 drives and over 20,000 cartridges capacity per library string or up to 2,700 drives per library complex.[28]

• TS1140 - Tape drive that uses 3592 media.[29]
• TS1060 - LTO tape drive that uses LTO generation 6 technology for use in TS3500 tape libraries.[30]

• TS3310 - Expandable library with up to 18 LTO drives (409 cartridges maximum with expansion modules.)
• TS3200 - Up to four LTO drive library using half-height drive assemblies (48 cartridges) or up to two with full-height drives.[31]
• TS3100 - Up to two LTO drive library using half-height drive assemblies (24 cartridges) or one full-height drive.[31]

• The IBM System Storage TS2900 Tape Autoloader - Designed for entry-level automation for backup and archiving in small-to-medium business environments. The TS2900 is available with IBM Linear Tape-Open (LTO) Half-High SAS tape technology.[32]
• TS2360 - Full-height external standalone or rack mountable shelf unit with a native physical capacity of 2.5 TB. The IBM Ultrium 6 technology is designed to support media partitioning, IBM Linear Tape File System (LTFS) technology and encryption of data and WORM cartridges.[33]
• TS2260 - Half-height external standalone or rack mountable shelf unit with a native physical capacity of 2.5 TB.[34]

• TS7620 ProtecTIER Deduplication Appliance - Preconfigured repository that can be configured with either a Virtual Tape Library or Symantec OpenStorage interface with a capacity of up to 35 TB.[35]
• IBM Virtualization Engine TS7700 series - The TS7700 is a virtual tape library for System z (mainframe) that uses disk drives for cache to accelerate backup operations. The design is intended to protect data while having shorter backup windows. End-to-end encryption protects data in motion, on cache hard drives and on tape. TS7740 and TS7720 are designed to speed up tape backups and restores by using a tiered hierarchy of disk and tape to make more efficient use of tape drives.[36]
• IBM System Storage TS7650G ProtecTIER Deduplication Gateway - Designed to meet the disk-based data protection needs of the enterprise data center while reducing costs. The system offers inline deduplication performance and scalability up to 1 petabyte (PB) of physical storage capacity per system that can provide up to 25 PB or more backup storage capacity.[37]

IBM SmartCloud Storage Access is a software application designed to create a private cloud storage service on existing storage devices. The software can be configured to allow users self-service, Internet-based access for account creation, storage provisioning and file management. The software offers simple management with monitoring and reporting capabilities, including storage usage by user and group definitions.[38]

The Active Cloud Engine (ACE) is an advanced form of multiple site replication. ACE is designed to allow different types of cloud implementations to exchange data dynamically. ACE does is designed to extend the SONAS capability for a single, centrally managed namespace, to a truly distributed, geographically-dispersed, global namespace.[39]

IBM Easy Tier is designed to automate data placement throughout the disk pool to improve the efficiency and performance of the storage system. Easy Tier is designed to relocate data (at the extent level) across up to three drive tiers automatically and without disruption to application. IBM Easy Tier is available on the DS8000, Storwize V7000, Storwize V7000 Unified, Storwize V5000, Storwize V3700 and SAN Volume Controller.