Spectrum Storage is the IBM version of the software-defined storage approach that many large manufacturers and VMware are currently using to establish their brand. IBM has the advantage of possessing 700 trademarks which it is currently using to promote and transform innovation in the area of software-defined storage.
IBM has officially committed to investing more than $1 billion over 5 years to develop its line of next-generation software-defined storage products. The main benefits that this solution will provide include greater management agility, faster deployment of new services, improved standardization of methods, and optimal use of resources both within and outside the company. Ultimately, the Spectrum Storage solution will help place business data in the right place, at the right time and at the right price, according to needs and the value of the information.
Gartner predicts that by 2020, 70%–80% of non-structured business data will reside in entry-level storage technologies or cloud-based technologies, which will be managed by a software-defined storage approach.
The Spectrum Storage solution includes a series of “cloud ready” storage management functions, including storage virtualization, SnapShot backups, synchronous and asynchronous replication, multi-tenancy isolation principles, and various automation and integration opportunities via API, OpenStack or VMware vCloud Suite.
An example of an investment that IBM has made is its multi-cloud connector, which is set to appear in 2015 and will allow clients to move their data between multiple cloud providers and thus protect their businesses from potential interruption of service or loss of data.
An important aspect of the IBM Spectrum Storage solution involves integrating and enabling the installation of hybrid cloud solutions. IBM has embedded several features into its solution that are designed to extend storage management outside of corporate walls to help better manage and protect externally housed data (e.g., with Cloud partners). Many analysts have acknowledged the importance of IBM’s strategy to position itself in order to offer its Cloud SoftLayer division services to businesses, along with eventual analytics and cognitive computing through its Watson® division.
In the shorter term, the range of Spectrum Storage solutions aims above all to simplify and optimize data management using various storage technologies that are currently in use. These solutions support administrators and automatically analyze resource use to match storage performance, availability and security requirements, as well as actual storage costs to automatically move data to the best location. From a business perspective, this reorganization of storage should improve the experience and level of services for users, while also reducing costs.
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More details on the main solution modules
IBM Spectrum Accelerate®
(software version of the XIV solution)
• Offers a grid-scale approach for block level storage environments.
• Helps clients to integrate their internal storage environments with those housed externally with cloud-based providers.
• Represents a “software” version created from the reputed XIV® line of solutions for large businesses.
• Spectrum Accelerate helps extend the key features of the XIV® line to your business’ entire range of resource and technology storage.
• Helps to implement corporate grid-storage, hyper-scale or hyper-cloud approaches, without the need for administrators to configure advanced settings when new services are launched.
• Can be launched using a virtual machine (VM) or physical infrastructure.
• Includes SnapShot backup features, synchronous and asynchronous replication, a multi-tenants mode, and potential automation using RESTful API and integration via OpenStack and vCloud Suite by VMware.
• The Hyper-Scale Manager console was redesigned and optimized in accordance with the GUI XIV® interface, to make it extremely user-friendly and accessible on mobile devices.
Click here to view the video segment on the IBM Spectrum Accelerate solution.
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IBM Spectrum Virtualize®
(formerly the SAN volume Controller)
• Optimizes efficiency, use of resources and the capacity to expand storage architecture using virtualization.
• Is based on proven IBM SAN Volume Controller (SVC) technology.
• Has undergone numerous launches, including projects to centralize and increase the storage management flexibility of various heterogeneous environments through the amalgamation of multiple storage technologies at geographically remote locations.
• Integrates storage virtualization, migration and replication features.
• Optimizes storage through real-time data compression technology
• Enhances storage performance through the intelligent and automated process of load balancing across established storage tiers using the EasyTier® feature.
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IBM Spectrum Scale®
(formerly the GPFS and Elastic Storage)
• Represents an enterprise level solution to manage massive data and file environments.
• Combines features introduced through IBM’s General Parallel File System® (GPFS) and Elastic Storage® technologies, along with several aspects of IBM’s Watson® technology.
• Is delivered via the Spectrum Virtualize solution and the SAN Volume Controller.
• Responds to the need for very large storage capacities, improved performance through flash technologies and automated policy-based data movement across established tiers.
Click here to view the video segment on the IBM Spectrum Scale solution
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IBM Spectrum Control®
(formerly the Virtual Storage Center)
• Helps centralize management of all internal or cloud-based storage resources and services.
• Helps simplify and automate storage resource and service purchases.
• Directly supports planning efforts related to infrastructure storage capacity.
• Helps monitor the availability of systems and a variety of service components.
• Generates several reports on capacity, use and performance that can be used for budget planning and cost redistribution.
• Is compatible with both flash and disk drive storage environments.
• Is completely integrated on VMware vCenter®
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IBM Spectrum Protect® (formerly the IBM Tivoli Storage Manager) and
IBM Spectrum Archive® (formerly the IBM Linear Tape File System)
• Provides companies with a complete solution to protect physical, virtual and cloud data environments.
• Is based on the most recent version of the IBM TSMv7 tool.
• Helps establish various backup and disaster recovery scenarios on a flash array, disk drive or tape library.
• Provides optimization and data reduction features via deduplication.
• Is completely integrated into the Spectrum Protect solution to move disk-based data to “tape-based” technologies, in accordance with data policies and life cycles.
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