On today’s smarter planet, organizations are faced with massive amounts of data created by an array of new sources, including sensors, social media, mobile platforms and more. And while the sheer volume of this new data may seem overwhelming, the value of information is stronger than ever—some even consider it the new currency of business. To help maximize the benefits of this flood of data, businesses are turning to software-defined environments, which can provide flexibility and responsiveness to business demands—along with higher scalability and greater efficiency.As part of a software defined environment, software defined storage integrates with a wide variety of server software including OpenStack and VMware, while also operating with a wide range of storage assets to offer maximum flexibility. Most importantly, the storage system presents a platform for virtualizing storage to complement virtualized servers, for providing services that add value and capability, and for integrating third-party enhancements, thus leveraging a wider community and delivering even more value.Designed for software-defined storage environments, the IBM Storwize® family has been delivering availability, reliability, flexibility and efficiency for more than ten years. The family began with the introduction of IBM System Storage® SAN Volume Controller, an industry-leading solution for storage virtualization. Storwize family systems have evolved to include the latest technologies that both complement and enhance virtual servers, as well as built-in storage functions—such as Real-time Compression and IBM Easy Tier® technology—that enable extraordinary levels of efficiency.In addition, as the pace of innovation continues to accelerate, the Storwize platform enables rapid integration of new technologies from both IBM and third-party vendors. For example, Storwize family systems now include Bridgeworks SANSlide technology to help optimize the use of network bandwidth.
Analytic driven and Application awareSimple and error free provisioningApplication provides advanced hints directly to the storage layer
Storwize platform is a mature, software defined storage solution that has been delivering flexibility and innovative storage function for more than ten years starting with IBM SAN Volume Controller, the industry's leading storage virtualization system. Storwize platform is the primary IBM storage for software defined environments. Building on SVC, IBM has enhanced the platform with home-grown functions like RAID and Easy Tier and today it enhances virtual infrastructures with built-in Real-time Compression (from our acquisition of the Storwize company) to enable extraordinary levels of efficiency and optimum performance. Now, the pace of change is accelerating as we integrate third-party software into the platform: Bridgeworks SANSlide network optimization. And the future holds even more promise as we look forward to integrating more technologies both from within IBM and from additional third parties.
When we speak about Storwize family, we’re talking about the set of systems that runs the same advanced software defined storage environment:SAN Volume ControllerFlex System V7000Storwize V7000 and Storwize V7000 UnifiedStorwize V5000Storwize V3700Storwize V3500 (available in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong only)We’re announcing major enhancements to Storwize Family Software, the software at the heart of these systems:Storwize family is the primary IBM storage for software defined environments and we’re demonstrating how we are accelerating the pace of change with these systems by integrating third-party software to deliver even greater value than ever.IP-based replication enhanced by integrated Bridgeworks SANSlide technology is a new lower cost option for remote mirroring and delivers up to 3x better network bandwidth utilization than before.Improvements to Real-time Compression improve throughput for critical VMware workloads by as much as 3x and deliver 35% better CPU utilization for random workloads. In both cases, this means you can compress more and more demanding data than ever.A new IBM Storage Mobile Dashboard enables monitoring and health checks of Storwize family systems from mobile devices.We’re adding support for the latest version of VMware and also for vStorage API for Storage Awareness (VASA)For Storwize V3700 and Storwize V5000, we’re adding the ability to migrate nondisruptively from existing SAS storage (previously we supported only Fibre Channel attached storage migration)For SVC, stretched cluster enables creating high availability conifgurations that span two sites up to 300km apart. Enhancements to stretched cluster reduce the amount of inter-site networking required and enable planned failover of workloads from one site to the other.We’re introducing 800GB solid-state (flash) drives across the family. These drives double the maximum flash capacity supported with these systems and may help reduce costs. For example, if two enclosures had been required with the previous 400GB SSDs, only one might be required today.Finally, we’re announcing a new member of the family: Storwize V5000. This midrange system offers performance, scalability and functionality midway between Storwize V3700 and Storwize V7000. The system also offers more flexible licensing of functions to offer even greater customization.
One of the most important new functios in Storwize family is IP replication, which enables the use of lower cost ethernet connections for remote mirroring. The capability is available as a chargeable option on all Storwize family systems.The new function is transparent to servers and applications (they have no idea it is being used) in the same way that traditional FC-based mirroring is.All remote mirroring modes (metro mirror, gloal mirror, and global mirror with changed volumes) are supported although it is expected that GM with CV will be the preferred option.Configuration of the system is straightforward: Storwize family systems will normally find each other on the network and can be selected from the GUI.IP replication includes Bridgeworks SANSlide network optimization technology and is available at no additional charge. That is to say, remote mirror is a chargeable option but the price doesn’t change with IP replication. Existing remote mirror users have access to the new function at no additional charge.
IP connections used for replication can have long latency (the time to transmit a signal from one end to the other), which may be caused by distance or by many ‘hops’ between switches and other appliances in the network.Traditional replication solutions transmit data, wait for a response then transmit more data, which can result in network utilization as low as 20% (based on IBM measurements). And this gets worse the longer the latency. Some customers have deployed optimization appliances to help get over this issue.Bridgeworks SANSlide technology integrated with IBM Storwize family requires no separate appliances and so no additional cost and no configuration hassle.It uses AI technology to transmit multiple data streams in parallel, adjusting automatically to changing network environments and workloads. And since it doesn’t use compression, it’s independent of application or data type. Most importantly, SANSlide improves network bandwidth utilization up to 3x so customers may be able to deploy a less costly network infrastructure or take advantage of faster data transfer to speed replication cycles, improve remote data currency, and enjoy faster recovery.
Advantages of Storwize family IP replication with Bridgeworks SANSlide include:Simpler: Eliminate FC-IP routers and network optimization appliancesIndependent: Eliminate CPU and management overhead of using server-based solutionsMore efficient: Significantly improve network utilization Flexible: Delivers benefits regardless of workload or data typeCheaper: Deploy less expensive networking infrastructure and eliminate need for dark fibreBetter: Reduce impact of disasters by copying data more quickly
Storwize family Real-time Compression is also being significantly enhanced. A new compression algorithm delivers significant performance improvements at a minimal cost in terms of compression (2-5 percentage points reduced compression).Once V7.2 software is installed, this new algorithm is used automatically for all new compressed volumes and for any new data written to existing compressed volumes. So there is nothing for users to do to experience the benefits of the new algorithm!The new algorithm delivers up to 3x throughput when performing sequential writes, which is especially important for VMware vMotion. The chart shows how much we have improved performance for storage vMotion: in this customer case, from over 70 minutes down to about 4 minutes.The new algorithm also uses 35% less CPU for random workloads, which enables compression to be used with more or more demanding workloads.In version 7.1, we enabled the use of Easy Tier with Real-time Compression, enabling customers to see both improved performance (with Easy Tier) and also greater efficiency, a combination not available with any of our competitors. Now, we’re optimizing the way Real-time Compression positions data so that “hot” and “cold” data is kept segregated, which helps improve the efficiency of Easy Tier even more.
A new storage mobile dashboard app is available to monitor the performance and health of Storwize family systems. The app works with all Storwize family systems and one instance of the app can manage multiple systems.At this point, the app is display only. It cannot alter system configurations. At the bottom, you can see used capacity. The bar changes color as capacity usage increases. Above that, you can see a graph of either recent latency (on the left) or IOPS (on the right). You can also view alerts for the systems and there is a filter capability to show only specific alert types.The app is available today for iOS devices from the Apple App Store. If you don’t have a Storwize family system, you can run it in demo mode to see what it looks like. Search for ‘IBM Storage Mobile Dashboard’
Ability for block systems to both scale up and out for performance and capacity What’s new:IBM Storwize V5000 system, the intermediate Storwize family member, delivers external virtualization, two-way clustering and high performance at a flexible price2U, 19-inch rack mount control enclosure supports attachment of up to six expansion enclosures with configurations up to 336 TB physical storage capacity and up to 672 TB in two-way clustered systemsClient Value:Leverage your current storage infrastructure and improve the return on investment with external virtualization Enable growth from the smaller configurations with dual clustering mode included in base price Cost effective deployment of SSDs with Easy TierEasy-to-use, graphical user interface based on the innovative Storwize interface designImprove efficiency and simplify implementation with thin provisioning and data migration included in base priceCloud ready storage system with built-in support for OpenStack
Here a list of flash storage in comparison to enterprise HDD.The grey colored boxes are “noncompetitive”, just listed here to use for comparison, to get the full picture of flash storage.eSSD = enterprise SSD, TP SSD = ThinkPad SSDExternal Flash is “just” 7 times more expensive per TB, but 10 times faster
Creation volumes (LUNs) on the storage systemPutting theses volumes as Managed Disks into the Storage Pools of SVC (Managed Disk Group)Create 3 different SVC storage PoolsFlash OnlyFlash + HDD for Easy TierHDD OnlyPlace SAP data bases with the pool.Very high performance Production DB into the Flash-only pool.All other Production into Easy Tier, maybe some QA systems as well.Remaining DBs, e.g. Dev/Test, into HDD-only pool