IBM Expands Storage Offerings Across Large Enterprise, Mid-Market Segments

“Virtualisation, De-duplication, Thin Provisioning, Compression and Automated Tiering are some essential technologies that can help companies make their storage more efficient” - Sandeep K Dutta, Vice President, Storage, Systems and Technology Group, IBM India/ SA talking about IBMs new storage series and the latest trends in the storage space.

Can you throw some light on IBM’s storage strategy?

We’re combining strategic acquisitions and leveraging IBM’s $6 billion annual investment in R&D to deliver an innovative portfolio of solutions that will help enterprises reduce storage costs and make more efficient and reliable use of data. These solutions also help increase the capacity to store data on a massive scale, categorise and prioritise data so that it can be more readily used for competitive advantage. Setting the stage for a new era of storage efficiency, we are now expanding our leadership in essential storage technologies such as storage virtualisation, automated tiering and thin provisioning with significant offerings across the large enterprise and mid-market segments.

The first in line is the advanced model of IBM’s high-end disk storage system, IBM System Storage DS8800. We have also launched IBM Storwize V7000 system designed to manage the torrent of data flowing into companies so it can be swiftly delivered for workloads. Ushering in a new era in midrange disk system, Storwize V7000 system includes built-in storage efficiency capabilities, a compact, modular design that’s easy to expand, and a radical GUI that significantly reduces system set up and administration effort.

What are the key features that Storwize V7000 offers?

Organisations are struggling with the volume and evolving nature of data that they’re already collecting. The IBM Storwize V7000 will deliver a new level of storage efficiency to the enterprises that can help them better store and secure their data.

IBM Storwize V7000 is designed to improve storage efficiency and costs while providing ease of use and performance in a midrange package. Easy Tier automatically moves the most active data (such as credit card data) to faster solid-state drives (SSDs) so that the data can be quickly accessed for real-time insight and used to provide competitive advantage, while moving less urgent data to more cost effective storage technology. Originally developed to enable IBM’s DS8000 family to prioritise data for high performance workloads like analytics, Easy Tier is now being brought to midrange users via the Storwize V7000 to support the workloads they commonly use, like transaction processing.
How rapidly is the storage market segment evolving?

The world is becoming smarter every day and information is driving this constant evolution. Market statistics throw some mind boggling figures. For instance, there were over 2.5 m RFID tags sold in 2009. It is projected that over 900 million GPS devices will be sold annually by 2013. Text messages generate 400TB of data daily in the U.S. MRIs will generate Petabytes of data globally this year. In addition, in India, medical tourism, power sector reforms, government initiatives, media and entertainment will continue to drive this information overload. IDC forecasts storage growth in India at 13.8% CAGR (2011-2015), with mid range being the biggest contributor to the overall external disk market with close to 40% share.

Businesses are struggling to manage the ever increasing data load. They are under tremendous pressure to turn this data into insight, while grappling with how to store and secure it all. Companies must start relying on smarter information storage systems that can handle all this information and manage it intelligently. Virtualisation, De-duplication, Thin Provisioning, Compression and Automated Tiering are some essential technologies that can help companies make their storage more efficient.

Going forward, what is the focus of IBM’s storage strategy in India?

IBM will now focus aggressively on increasing its presence in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities through its geo-expansion strategy and building its partner base to take the new launches to market. We have also extended an aggressive financing scheme for clients in India, who switch from competitive gear to IBM’s server and storage platform. This new program provided by IBM Global Financing helps enterprises in India to easily and affordably acquire new mid-range and high-end storage offerings. This includes cash-back for new or used equipment, attractive lease terms and no payments until early 2011 for credit-qualified clients.