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IBM will move stored stuff onto its new flashy boxen for free

Strong bait for new customers. Not good news for Dell or EMC

IBM has launched more cost-effective Storwize all-flash arrays and announced a Flash In migration program aimed at Dell and EMC customers looking for a warm comfort blanket from Big Blue.

The existing Storwize line includes:

  • V7000 – hybrid flash/disk enterprise array
  • V5000F – all flash enterprise array
  • V5000 – mid-size hybrid flash/disk array

To these IBM is adding two new all-flash configurations:

  • V7000F – called an all-flash mid-range product
  • V5030F – described as all flash entry-level

That says the Storwize V7000 is no longer seen as a high-end system, implying that a larger Storwise system is coming or that the all-flash DS8000 or FlashSystems will fulfill that role.

The main spec list difference between the products appear to be cache capacity.

Both support up to 504 flash drives, with capacities ranging from 400GB through 800GB, 1.6TB, 1.92TB, 3.2TB to 3.84TB. The V5030F can have 1,008 per clustered system and the V7000F 1,056.

The V7000F has a maximum of 128GB cache, 512GB per clustered system, while the V5030F has 32GB per system and up to 64GB in a cluster. This implies the main difference between the two products is performance, with the cache-heavy V7000F being the faster product.

The V7000F improves performance by up to 45 per cent compared to the hybrid flash/disk V7000* and supports four times clustering for scale-out and scale-up growth.

The two new products are designed for primary storage workloads, such as database management systems like SQL Server and MySQL, digital media broadcast, real-time streaming, and video surveillance. IBM says they can handle also "huge volumes of Internet of Things (IoT) data."

Ed Walsh, the recently-appointed general manager of IBM Storage and Software Defined Infrastructure, gave out a canned quote, saying: "This announcement addresses a clear need for clients that require a substantial increase in storage performance but at a price that’s in line with the reality of today’s data centre budgets."

BM claims the two new Storwize arrays bring enterprise-class availability and function to mid-range and entry-level all-flash storage; a common marketing stance used by incumbent storage suppliers when bringing our new mid-range and entry-level kit.

Flash In

This is a no-cost migration service to move other supplier's flash array customers to IBM all-flash systems. They, if new to IBM, will receive data migration and installation services for five consecutive days for either on-site replacement or upgrades.

IBM says this will help its "Business Partners reach new clients not currently served by IBM, and clients who may face potential disruption if there are product portfolio integrations with Dell and EMC."

Customers choosing to migrate from Dell or EMC can make a choice from IBM FlashSystem A9000, A9000R, V9000, 900, DS8888, Deep Flash 150 with Spectrum Scale, and VersaStack offerings with V9000, Storwize V7000F andV5030F.

The new all-flash IBM products will be available in Septamber, with pricing starting at $19,000. ®

* IBM engineering measurements comparing 48-drive all-flash configurations of Storwize V7000 Gen2 using RAID5 with Storwize V7000F using distributed RAID6 – August 2016

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