For those who want to meet me in person, there are two opportunities coming up in December.

Data Center Conference, December 1-4

Once again, I will be blogging from Ceasar's Palace Las Vegas at this year's [Data Center Conference 2009]! Last year's conference was a blast, and this one looks to be quite exciting. IBM is again a premier sponsor. Scheduled to speak are the following IBM executives:

• Helene Armitage, the new General Manager of System Software, on "IT-Wide Virtualization, A Prerequisite for a Truly Dynamic Infrastructure"
• Steve Sams, the VP of Sites and Facilities, on "Data Center Actions Your CFO Will Love"
• Barry Rudolph, the VP of System Storage, on "Meeting the Information Infrastructure Challenge"

We will also have an IBM booth at the Solutions Showcase, showing off the latest in Cloud Computing, Service Management, Information Infrastructure, and Workload-optimized systems. You will be able to schedule one-on-one sessions with IBM executives and subject matter experts. Best of all, we will have on display a Portable Modular Data Center [PMDC] that can hold a fully operational data center in a standard [20 foot shipping container].

IBM Virtualization and Consolidation Briefing, December 15

This is being done "open house" style. If you can get yourself to the IBM Tucson Executive Briefing Center, IBM will provide you breakfast, a series of presentations, lunch, and then even more presentations. Your stomach and brain will be full by the end of the day. Here is a list of the presentations:

• Dynamic Infrastructure Strategy
• SAN Volume Controller
• ProtecTIER Data Deduplication Solution
• DS8000 series Enterprise Disk
• XIV Enterprise Disk
• Enterprise Tape Library Automation
• Information Archive solution

Seating is limited, so to reserve your seat, contact Lee Olguin or the ISSO at the phone numbers listed for the [IBM Tucson Executive Briefing Center].

I will be at both events in December, so feel free to contact me if you want to arrange a visit.

technorati tags: GDC09, Las Vegas, IBM, Tucson, EBC, SVC, ProtecTIER, DS8000, XIV, DynInfra

Tags:  events

This week I am blogging from beautiful Caesars Palace hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada to report on what I see and hear at the 28th annual Data Center Conference. Today was simply registration, which opened at 4pm, and I was able to get my conference backpack, badge, and details of the week.

Already, I can tell there will be more people here, and it looks like the economy is on the rebound versus last year. Here are my posts from 12 months ago when I attended this conference in 2008:

• [Red Badge of Courage]
• [Day 2 - Keynote Sessions]
• [Solution Showcase]
• [Day 3 - More Keynote Sessions]
• [Deploying Disruptive Storage Architectures]
• [Day 4 - Future of the Data Center]
• [Surviving Hurricane Katrina]
• [Hospitality Suites]
• [Day 5 - The Last Few Sessions]

This year, we will have the IBM Portable Modular Data Center (PMDC) with XIV and iDataPlex inside, as well as several subject matter experts joining me at the solution center. Look for us in the "Hunter Green" shirts.

technorati tags: IBM, GDC09, LSC28

Tags:  datacenter recovery architectures keynote disruptive disaster storage

I almost sprayed coffee all over my screen when I read this post from fellow blogger from EMC Mark Twomey on his StorageZilla blog titled [Dead End]. In it he implies that you should only consider storage technologies based on x86 technologies such as those from Intel, not other CPU technologies like POWER or MIPS.

Puh-leeze!

When IBM first came out with the SAN Volume Controller in 2003, we were able to show that adding Intel-based SVC nodes can improve the performance and functionality of POWER-based DMX boxes from EMC. EMC salesmen often retorted with "Yes, but do you really want to risk your mission-critical data going through an Intel-based processor solution?" This FUD implied that Intel had a bad reputation for quality and reliability. The original Symmetrix were based on Motorolla 68000's but they modernized to use IBM's POWER chips in their later models. EMC's previous attempt to use Intel technology was their EMC Invista, a commercial failure. It is no surprise then that EMC DMX customers are scared to death to move their mission critical data over to Intel-based V-max.

I have found the primary reason people fear Intel-based solutions is their experience with poorly-written Windows programs. There were enough of these poorly-written Windows programs that everyone has either personal experience, or knows someone who has, and that was enough.

It reminds me of the time I was in Vac, Hungary, giving a lab tour to a set of prospective clients where we manufacture the DS8000 series and SAN Volume Controller. Rows and rows of beautiful Hungarian women sliding disk drives in place, and big hefty Hungarian beefcake moving the finished units to their appropriate places. The head of the facility explained all about the hardware technology, how we check and double check all of the equipment individually, and together as a system. One client stated "Yes, but how often are problems from the hardware? We find nearly all of our problems on disk systems from whichever storage vendor we buy from are in the microcode." It's true.

Both Intel-based processors and POWER-based processors have all the technological functions needed to run storage systems. The difference is all in the microcode. So, if you are looking for safe and stable microcode, the IBM System Storage DS8700 continues its POWER-based tradition for compatibility with previous models. For those that demand x86-based units, the IBM SAN Volume Controller has been around since 2003, the XIV Storage System has been in production since 2005, and our IBM N series are also Intel-based, running Version 7 of the ONTAP operating system.

technorati tags: IBM, DS8000, DS8700, SVC, XIV, EMC, Invista, Symmetrix, V-max, Storagezilla, Mark Twomey, Intel, x86, POWER, MIPS, CPU, ONTAP, N series

Tags:  ds8700

Well, it's Tuesday again, and we have more IBM announcements.

XIV asynchronous mirror

For those not using XIV behind SAN Volume Controller, [XIV now offers native asynchronous mirroring] support to another XIV far, far away. Unlike other disk systems that are limited to two or three sites, an XIV can mirror to up to 15 other sites. The mirroring can be at the individual volume, or a consistency group of multiple volumes. Each mirror pair can have its own recovery point objective (RPO). For example, a consistency group of mission critical application data might be given an RPO of 30 seconds, but less important data might be given an RPO of 20 minutes. This allows the XIV to prioritize packets it sends across the network.

As with XIV synchronous mirror, this new asynchronous mirror feature can send the data over either its Fibre Channel ports (via FCIP) or its Ethernet ports.

Networking Gear

The IBM System Storage SAN384B and SAN768B directors now offer [two new blades!]

• A 24-port FCoCEE blade where each port can handle 10Gb convergence enhanced Ethernet (CEE). CEE can be used to transmit Fibre Channel, TCP/IP, iSCSI and other Ethernet protocols. This connect directly to server's converged network adapter (CNA) cards.
• A 24-port mixed blade, with 12 FC ports (1Gbps, 2Ggbs, 4Gbps, 8Gbps), 10 Ethernet ports (1GbE) and 2 Ethernet ports (10GbE). This would connect to traditional server NIC, TOE and HBA cards as well as traditional NAS, iSCSI and FC based storage devices.

IBM also announced the IBM System Storage [SAN06B-R Fibre Channel router]. This has 16 FC ports (1Gbps up to 8Gbps) and six Ethernet ports (1GbE), with support for both FC routing as well as FCIP extended distance support.

With the holiday season coming up at the end of the year, now is a great time to ask Santa for a new shiny pair of XIV systems, and some extra networking gear to connect them.

technorati tags: IBM, XIV, asynchronous+mirror, FCoE, FCoCEE, CEE, iSCSI, SAN384B, SAN768B, SAN06B-R

Tags:  disk fcoe xiv