Data Storage Adds IBM i Servers to Cloud Data Center

May 22, 2012 Alex Woodie

Data Storage Corp. recently added more IBM i processing power to its Massachusetts data center in preparation for expanding its portfolio of cloud services, which range from data protection to production hosting.

DSC last week announced that it has completed the first two phases of its three-part expansion plan at its SAS70 type II data center in Waltham, Massachusetts. The company now has a range of Power5-, Power6-, and Power7-based servers in place to address the IBM i computing needs of its customers.

Data protection continues to be DSC’s forte on the IBM i platform, particularly after its 2010 acquisition of SafeData. Today, it provides data vaulting, disaster recovery (DR), and high availability (HA) services on the IBM i platform.

But the company is moving to provide IBM i resources as an infrastructure as a service (IaaS) offering. “Interest in cloud services has increased, as companies are looking to save on the costs of maintenance and upgrades for the System i platform,” Data Storage executive vice president and CTO Matthew Grosso says via email.

The third phase will bolster the DR and HA capabilities of DSC through the adoption of IBM‘s PowerHA technology, Grosso says. “We can offer clients cloud from one data center and HA or DR in another. . . giving them the disaster plan they need without the capex and tech salary.”

The third phase will also include additional investment in Intel-based systems. In addition to the Waltham data center, DSC operates three other data centers.