Storwize Gets Faster Pipes, Encryption at Rest
November 4, 2014 Alex Woodie
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IBM i shops that need to move a lot of data really fast may want to check out the latest Storwize V7000 and Storage Volume Controller (SVC) arrays, which now give customers the option of using 16 Gb Fibre Channel adapters. IBM also brought support for encryption at rest to the V7000. The Storwize V7000 is the high-end of the Storwize family, the X86-based storage area networks aimed at midsized and large enterprises. The arrays run SAS-based disks across clusters of up to 20 enclosures. Properly configured, clusters can exceed 4 PB of storage. IBM last week announced that the Storwize V7000 Control Enclosure Model 524 now supports support 16 Gb FC connectivity, with an optional two-port 16 Gb FC adapter card. Also getting the fast 16 Gb FC cards is the SVC Storage Engine Model DH8. Both models support up to four 16 Gb FC adapter cards, providing a total of eight 16 Gb FC ports per SVC engine or V7000 control enclosure. Users can now encrypt their Storwize V7000 data by choosing the optional “encryption enablement” feature with the V7000 control enclosure. The encryption was delivered entirely through a software update, Storwize Family Software version 7.4, and doesn’t require any special disk drives, IBM says. IBM also enhanced the Storwize V5000 by adding support for up to 480 drives across 19 Storwize V5000 expansion enclosures. A two-way clustered system can scale up to 960 drives, IBM says. Storage capacity across the entire Storwize family has grown thanks to a new selection of SAS drives, including a 6 TB, 7,200 rpm, 3.5-inch drive, a 1.8 TB, 10,000 rpm, 3.5-inch drive (only available on the Storwize V3700 and V5000); and a 1.8 TB, 10,000 rpm, 2.5-inch drive. The Storwize Family Software version 7.4, meanwhile, provides several new features, including the capability to use two real-time compression engines instead of just one. Customers who use the Global Mirror asynchronous replication feature will find greater tolerance for latency between nodes in the cluster, from 80 milliseconds to 250 milliseconds. The number of FlashCopy consistency groups that a customer can maintain on a single system increased from 127 per system to 255. The Storwize software also gets support for T10, the SCSI device protocol designed to provide an extra layer of data integrity between the RAID layer and the SAS disk layer. Finally, 7.4 will include a new data protection feature that prevents admins from deleting any data unless the volume is idle, meaning that no recent data written to or read from them. For more information on the Storwize hardware enhancements, see United States Hardware Announcement 114-182. For more information on the Storwize software enhancements, see United States Software Announcement 214-450. RELATED STORIES IBM Offers Storwize Virtualization Software Freebie Deal IBM Cranks Up Storwize V7000 Capacity to 4 PB IBM Gives 50 Percent Compression Guarantee On Storwize V7000 IBM Cuts Flash Copy Tags For Storwize V5000 IBM Storwize V5000: A SAN For The SMB Masses IBM Gives Away Storwize V3700 Advanced Software Features
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