Storage Announcements : XIV and Protectier

This week I already discussed the LTO5 and DS8700 announcements, but there're still some more : XIV and ProtecTIER. As I've already said, I've broadened my horizon a bit and I will also talk about high-end storage which is not always immediately mainframe-related. But we've already seen how thin this line can be. ProtecTIER already has a gateway for the mainframe and behind that you can also have an XIV. Though I must say, the new functionalities for ProtecTIER are open systems only for the moment as it's about the TS7650.

What's the main part of the ProtecTIER announcements (ZP10-0169 and ZP10-0172) ?
It's called many-to-one replication. It's for customers with backup data at multiple data centers, remote offices or multiple office locations. You can have up to twelve primary sites with a ProtecTIER solutions (called spokes) and have one central target (called hub). The twelve spokes replicate their virtual tapes (already deduplicated) to the hub. This hub acts as a Disaster/Recovery solution for all spokes. "It can become a 'primary' for any number of the spokes under disaster while still allowing local backups and replication from other active spokes". And as a picture tells more than a thousand words, here's schematic illustration you can also find when you take a look at the accompanying podcast. You can find the link on the ProtecTIER information page too.

Click on image to see larger version in new window

Planned availability : May 28, 2010

On to XIV with the 2TB drive support (ZP10-0080 and ZP10-0069). This is quite straightforward : it extends the maximum usable capacity from 79TB to 161TB for a full rack with 15 modules. But there's more good news : same footprint but less power consumption compared to a 1TB rack. And performance should remain roughly the same. Some resources : the XIV home page, the XIV fact sheet and the XIV 2TB launch page with some interesting links like customer references, testimonials and an introductory podcast.

Planned availability : April 22, 2010.